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Fruit fusion: how will the market react to Chinese scientists’ lychee-longan creation?

Described as tender and crisp, Cuimi delivers about double the yield compared with Shixia longan, say developers

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Chinese scientists have crossed a lychee with a longan, producing a hybrid fruit called Cuimi that breaks long-standing reproductive barriers between plant genera for the first time. Photo: Guangzhou Daily
Dannie Pengin Beijing
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 team. The hybrid fruit breaks long-standing reproductive barriers between plant genera.

It has been planted across Guangdong, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in southern China, with its yield this year reaching several thousand jin, a Chinese unit equal to 500 grams or 17.6 ounces. Trial sales are scheduled for mid-September.

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Speaking at an on-site demonstration hosted by South China Agricultural University (SCAU) in Guangzhou on August 9, Liu Chengming, a professor at the university’s College of Horticulture and the lead developer of the variety, told media that about 90 per cent of Cuimi’s genetic material comes from its mother. Consequently, its appearance and flavour lean closer to those of the longan.

Nevertheless, the hybrid has inherited several key traits from its father, including the cracked, textured skin characteristic of lychees, according to the team which said its flesh was tender, crisp and free of fibrous strands.
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