BATS AND LYCHEES

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Ancient tropical China was the first home of the lychee tree. It grew by seacoasts and rivers. Now the tree finds a home in many tropical countries.

The lychee tree is pleasant to behold. It has glossy evergreen leaves and showy yellow flowers. Those, after pollination by a variety of insects, mature into clusters of rough-skinned red fruits that resemble strawberries. The pollinating bees that drink nectar from the lychee tree flowers produce superb honey.

Peel off the rough skin of a lychee fruit and smell-savour the juicy flesh within. Some say the taste and texture of a fresh lychee fruit is akin to that of a large, perfumed juicy grape.

Unless you live in or visit one of the tropical countries where lychee trees thrive, you may never enjoy a lychee fruit at its peak. The fruit is delicate and does not travel well. Those of us who live in non-tropical countries may have to eat lychees canned or dried. Dried lychees are comparable to raisins.

Mascarene flying foxes and Egyptian rousette bats are known to eat the lychee fruit. After the bats drop a seed, a wild tree may sprout, ensuring protection of the tree's genetic heritage.

Egyptian rousette bats; lychee tree planters

A person can sweeten their cup of tea with a bit of dried lychee fruit.

A person can try to increase their energy and feeling of good health by taking a remedy made from the lychee fruit seed.

A person can gargle a concoction made from the root, bark or flowers of the lychee tree to cure a sore throat.

• Reference
  Morton, Julia. 1987. Fruits of warm climates, pp. 249-259;http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton