longan

Longan
Longan fruit
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Sapindaceae
Genus:	Dimocarpus
Species:	D. longan
Binomial name
Dimocarpus longan Lour.

The longan (simplified Chinese: 龙眼; traditional Chinese: 龍眼; pinyin: lóngyǎn; Cantonese Yale: lung4 ngaan5; literally "dragon eye"; Thai ลำไย) is a tropical tree native to southern China. It is also found in Southeast Asia. It is also called guiyuan (桂圓) in Chinese, Ash-fol (আঁশফল) in Bengali, lengkeng in Indonesia, mata kucing (literally "cat's eye") in Malaysia, nhãn in Vietnamese (The Species: Euphoria longana Lamk. named "long nhãn" in Vietnamese- literally "dragon's eyes"), Mora in Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) and also "longan" in Tagalog.

Description

The tree can grow up to 12 metres in height, and the plant is very sensitive to frost. Longan trees require sandy soil and temperatures that do not typically go below 4.5 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit). Longans and lychees bear fruit at around the same time of the year.

The longan ("dragon eyes") is so named because of the fruit's resemblance to an eyeball when it is shelled (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris). The seed is small, round and hard, and of an enamel-like, lacquered black. The fully ripened, freshly harvested shell is bark-like, thin, and firm, making the fruit easy to shell by squeezing the fruit out as if one is "cracking" a sunflower seed. When the shell has more moisture content and is more tender (due to either premature harvest, variety, weather conditions, or transport/storage conditions), the fruit becomes less convenient to shell.

To express longan fruit, there is a Vietnamese riddle: Da cóc mà bọc bột lọc, bột lọc mà bọc hòn than (literally: Toad's skin covers tapioca flour, tapioca flour covers coal stone): toad's skin is the skin, tapioca flour is the clear white flesh and coal stone is the black seed.

Culinary uses

The fruit is edible, extremely sweet, juicy and succulent in superior agricultural varieties, and apart from ingested fresh, is also often used in East Asian soups, snacks, desserts, and sweet-and-sour foods, either fresh or dried, sometimes canned with syrup in supermarkets.

Dried longan (Chinese: 桂圆; pinyin: guiyuan literal translation 桂圓 (Cassia (Gui, or Guay) marbles) are often used in Chinese cuisine and Chinese sweet dessert soups. In Chinese food therapy and herbal medicine, it is believed to have an effect on relaxation. In contrast with the fresh fruit, which is juicy and white, the flesh of dried longans is dark brown to almost black. In Chinese medicine the longan, much like the lychee, is considered a "warm" fruit.

See also

• List of fruits

References

• World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1998). Dimocarpus longan. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 9 May 2006.

External links

• Fruits of Warm Climates: Longan
• Dimocarpus longan (Sapindaceae)
• Longan Production in Asia from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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