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Lychee is native to the Southern part of China in the provinces of Guangdong and Fukien. It was originally grown in the mountains, but speculate that the rivers carried the seeds down or carried down by birds to the lower lands of Guangdong and Fukien. Then the lychee tress began growing near the seacoast and along the rivers of Guangdong and Fukien.
Today, Guangdong is known as the "Kingdom of Lychees"
with the highest production of the best lychee's around. It is said that there is a cluster of the lychee trees in Guangdong that have been there for over two thousand years! Can you imagine that, a tree that has been producing this fruit for over two thousand years?
When lychee trees start growing they are very sensitive to the environment and cannot withstand heavy frosts. As the tree lychee tree matures it can start to withstand only lightfrosts. They grow best in subtropical climates just like Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and Plasmodium falciparum (a parasite). The best weather are when the summers are warm and humid, while the winters are moderate and dry. The adult mature trees can withstand cold temperatures, but nothing less than 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Lychees are starting to begin to grow outside of China and in other countries such as the United States(Hawaii, California, and Florida), India, Vietnam, and other subtropical and tropical regions of the world.