Longan Tree

About the Longan Tree

Longan is the lychee's close cousin, bearing heavy clusters of small, round, tan-skinned fruit. Inside the thin shell is juicy, translucent flesh with a honeyed, slightly musky sweetness around a glossy black seed, which gives it the name dragon's eye. Fruit are delicious fresh, and are also widely dried for desserts and teas in Asian cooking. The tree is a dense, attractive evergreen that makes good shade. It is generally less fussy than lychee about winter chill, and grows well in warm subtropical and tropical parts of Mexico. Grown on our farms in Yucatán and Chiapas and shipped via DHL.

How to Care for It

Plant in full sun in deep, well-drained soil, sandy or loamy. Water regularly while young and during flowering and fruit set; a drier, cooler spell in winter improves flowering. Feed with balanced fertiliser three times a year, plus compost. Mature trees tolerate brief light frost, but cover young plants when temperatures approach freezing. Thin crowded branches after harvest to keep the canopy productive and easy to pick.

Grow fruit most people have never tasted. Our exotic fruit trees, from Monthong durian and Emperor lychee to jaboticaba, achachairú and red finger lime, are raised on our farms in Yucatán and Chiapas and shipped by DHL across Mexico. Most love heat and humidity; several do beautifully in large pots.

Growing Profile

Botanical name

Dimocarpus longan

Family

Sapindaceae

Native to

Southern China and Southeast Asia

Mature height

6–12 m

Plant spacing

8 m

Years to first fruit

3–5 years

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate

Cold tolerance

down to -2 °C

Best climates

Subtropical, Humid tropics, Mild highlands

Grows in a pot

Best in the ground

Ships from

Our farms in Yucatán & Chiapas