The Origins Of Lychee Wood

Lychee wood material comes from the evergreen lychee tree or Litchi chinensis, a slow-growing evergreen monoecious tree with a dense, wide crown that can reach a height of between 9 meters to 30 meters. Lychee tree is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, native of Southern China and South eastern Asia. Lychee tree has been widely cultivated for its prized fruits for more than two millennia. Cultivation of lychee began in the region of southern China, going back to 1059 AD, Malaysia, and northern Vietnam. Unofficial records in China refer to lychee as far back as 2000 BC. The Lychee is a long-lived tree related to the Nephelium lappaceum (Rambutan), Dimocarpus longan (Longan) , Nephelium mutabile (Pulusan) and Nephelium malaiense (Mata Kuching) fruit trees. It is widely known as litchi and regionally as lichi, lichee, laichi. The trunk of the tree is usually short and with branches that are often crooked and twisted. It is extremely rare to find a wild lychee tree that is suitable for a single wood slab dining table size. Because of the year rings are so tight, a tree trunk with the size suitable for making a small console table is at least 50 years old.