Editing Lychee (section)

== History ==
[[File:Flora Sinensis 1656 (2950635) (cropped).jpg|thumb|"Lici Fruit Tree" in [[Michal Boym]]'s ''[[Flora Sinensis]]'' (1657)]]

Cultivation of lychee began in the region of [[South China|southern China]], going back to 1059 AD, [[Malaysia]], and northern [[Vietnam]].<ref name=Purdue/> Unofficial records in [[China]] refer to lychee as far back as 2000 BC.<ref name="Andersen">{{cite book |author1=Andersen, Peter A. |author2=Schaffer, Bruce |title=Handbook of environmental physiology of fruit crops |publisher=CRC Press |location=Boca Raton |year=1994 |pages=123–140 |isbn=978-0-8493-0179-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wynac3NvzLsC&pg=PA123}}</ref> Wild trees still grow in parts of southern China and on [[Hainan Island]]. The fruit was used as a delicacy in the Chinese Imperial Court.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bishop |first1=Kevin |title=China's Imperial Way: Retracing an Historical Trade and Communications Route from Beijing to Hong Kong |date=1997 |publisher=China Books |isbn=9622175112 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1c0UyPNF_I0C |access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref>

In the 1st century during the [[Han dynasty]], fresh lychees were a popular [[tribute]] item, and in such demand at the Imperial Court that a special courier service with fast horses would bring the fresh fruit from Guangdong.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yu |first=Yingshi |author-link=Yu Ying-shih|title=Chinese History and Culture. Volume 1, Sixth Century B.C.E. to Seventeenth Century |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-231-54201-2 |location=New York |pages=114 |oclc=933211532}}</ref> There was great demand for lychee in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), according to [[Cai Xiang]], in his ''Li chi pu'' (Treatise on Lychees). It was also the favorite fruit of [[Emperor of China|Emperor]] [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang China|Li Longji (Xuanzong)]]'s favored concubine [[Yang Guifei|Yang Yuhuan (Yang Guifei)]].  The emperor had the fruit delivered at great expense to the capital.<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book |last1=Davidson |first1=Jane L. |last2=Davidson |first2=Alan |last3=Saberi |first3=Helen |last4=Jaine |first4=Tom |title=The Oxford companion to food |year=2006 |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=467 |isbn=978-0-19-280681-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTr-ouCbL2AC&pg=PA467}}</ref>

The lychee attracted the attention of [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]] travelers, such as the Spanish bishop, explorer, and sinologist [[Juan González de Mendoza]] in his ''History of the great and mighty kingdom of China'' (1585; English translation 1588), based on the reports of Spanish [[friar]]s who had visited China in the 1570s gave the fruit high praise:<ref>[[Juan González de Mendoza]], ''[https://archive.org/stream/historyofgreatmi14151gonz#page/14/mode/2up The history of the great and mighty kingdom of China and the situation thereof]''. English translation by Robert Parke, 1588, in an 1853 reprint by Hakluyt Society. Page 14. The Spanish version (in a 1944 reprint) has ''lechías''.</ref>

{{blockquote|[T]hey haue a kinde of plummes, that they doo call ''lechias'', that are of an exceeding gallant tast, and neuer hurteth any body, although they shoulde eate a great number of them.}}

Later the lychee was described and introduced to the West in 1656 by [[Michal Boym]], a Polish Jesuit missionary (at that time [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]).<ref name=kaj>{{cite book | last= Kajdański | first= Edward | title= Michał Boym: ambasador Państwa Środka | publisher= Książka i Wiedza | location= Warszawa | year= 1999 | isbn= 9788305130967 | language= pl| chapter=Flora Chin| page=183}}</ref>

Lychee trees were introduced to Jamaica by Chinese immigrants in the 18th century, where the fruit is associated with the [[Chinese Jamaicans|Chinese Jamaican]] community.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Ganeshram |first=Ramin |date=2024-06-25 |title=How a Cake Became a National Obsession |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/dining/lychee-cake.html |access-date=2024-06-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>  The fruit is featured in a popular Jamaican cake, called ''lychee cake'', which is made of a light [[sponge cake]], cream, and fruit, which has been one of the most popular cakes in Jamaica since its creation by baker Selena Wong in 1988.<ref name=":0" />

Lychee was introduced in the north-western parts of [[Indian Subcontinent]] (then [[British Raj]]) in 1932 and remained an exotic plant until the 1960s when commercial production began. The crop's production expanded from Begum Kot ([[Lahore District]]) in Punjab to [[Hazara Division|Hazara]], [[Haripur District|Haripur]], [[Sialkot]] and [[Mirpur Khas District|Mirpur Khas]].

=== Double domestication ===
[[Genomics|Genomic studies]] indicate that the lychee resulted from double domestication by independent cultivation in two different regions of ancient China.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hu|first1=Guibing|last2=Feng|first2=Junting|last3=Xiang|first3=Xu|last4=Wang|first4=Jiabao|last5=Salojärvi|first5=Jarkko|last6=Liu|first6=Chengming|last7=Wu|first7=Zhenxian|last8=Zhang|first8=Jisen|last9=Liang|first9=Xinming|last10=Jiang|first10=Zide|last11=Liu|first11=Wei|date=January 2022|title=Two divergent haplotypes from a highly heterozygous lychee genome suggest independent domestication events for early and late-maturing cultivars|journal=Nature Genetics|language=en|volume=54|issue=1|pages=73–83|doi=10.1038/s41588-021-00971-3|pmid=34980919 |pmc=8755541 |issn=1546-1718}}</ref>