Dimocarpus lichi Loureiro; Litchi chinensis var. euspontanea H. H. Hsue; Nephelium chinense (Sonnerat) Druce; N. lit-chi Cambessèdes; Scytalia chinensis (Sonnerat) Gaertner.

Trees, evergreen, often less than 10 m tall, sometimes to 15 m tall or more. Bark grayish black; branches brownish red, terete, with dense white lenticels. Leaves with petiole 10-25 cm or longer; leaflets 2 or 3(or 4) pairs; petiolules 7-8 mm; blades adaxially deep green and shiny, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, sometimes elliptic-lanceolate, 6-15 × 2-4 cm, thinly leathery or leathery, abaxially glaucous, glabrous, lateral veins often slender, conspicuous or slightly prominent abaxially, margin entire, apex cuspidate or shortly caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, large, many branched. Pedicels 2-4 mm, slender, sometimes short and stout. Calyx golden tomentose. Stamens 6 or 7, sometimes 8; filaments ca. 4 mm. Ovary densely tuberculous
and hispid. Fruit usually dark red to fresh red when mature, globose to subglobose, 2-3.5 cm. Seeds thoroughly covered by fleshy arillode. Fl. spring, fr. summer.

Long cultivated in China, this species is famous for its fruit (litchi, lichee, lychee). Nowadays there are about ten cultivars in China.

Native in SW Guangdong (Xuwen) and Hainan; widely cultivated in S China, especially in S Fujian and Guangdong [Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; widely cultivated in subtropical regions].