Fruit fusion: how will the market react to Chinese scientists’ lychee-longan creation?
Chinese scientists who crossed a lychee with a longan are preparing to test its market release after the first substantial harvest of the high-yield, cold-resistant fruit is expected to ripen next month. The new variety, named “Cuimi”, was bred using the Shixia longan – a popular cultivar in Guangdong province – as its maternal parent and a lychee as its paternal parent, according to the research…
Chinese scientists have successfully crossbred a lychee with a longan, creating a new hybrid fruit called "Cuimi". This high-yield, cold-resistant variety was developed using the Shixia longan as the maternal parent and a lychee as the paternal parent. The unique fruit has been planted across Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in southern China, with its yield reaching several thousand jin this year.
The trial sales are scheduled for mid-September, with the hybrid expected to hit markets in early to mid-September next year. Cuimi inherits many traits from its lychee parent, including the cracked, textured skin, while its flesh is tender, crisp, and free of fibrous strands. Compared to the Shixia longan, Cuimi delivers about double the yield, is more cold resistant, and ripens 15 to 20 days later.
This breakthrough in intergeneric hybridisation could help expand longan cultivation areas in China and extend the fruit's commercial selling season. The success of Cuimi builds on nearly three years of research, starting in 2007, where researchers overcame the major reproductive barrier between lychees and longans. The development of Cuimi has also opened up new techniques for crossbreeding fruit trees in China, serving as a model for developing new varieties of other fruits.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
