Fruit tree

Lychee

Litchi chinensis · also Litchi

A handsome evergreen tree for the subtropics and the cooler tropics. It needs a week or more of cool nights below 20 °C to flower, then warm, humid summers. It is frost-tender when young and does poorly in cold or dry inland areas. Expect a small crop after 4 or 5 years.

SunFull sun
Spacing800 cm apart
FrostFrost tender
HeatCopes with some heat

When to plant where you live

Checking your area…

Add lychee to my garden

Planting times for other areas

Take care with pets and children

Pets: Mildly toxic. Children: Moderately toxic. Parts: unripe fruit, seed. Lychees contain hypoglycin A and MCPG, highest in unripe fruit. In India, outbreaks of dangerously low blood sugar and brain illness in young children were linked to eating many lychees, mostly unripe, on an empty stomach. Give children ripe fruit only, in small amounts after a meal. The seed is a choking and gut-blockage risk for pets.

Varieties (4)

BengalLarger, sweeter fruit
Kwai May Pink (B3)Crops almost every year; small seed; the best home-garden choice
Tai SoVigorous, early variety; can crop irregularly
Wai CheeLate variety for the cooler subtropics; small fruit

From seed to plate

Plant
800 cm apart. Full sun.
Water
Keep moist while fruit develops; ease off a little in late autumn to help flowering.
Feed
Small, regular feeds of organic fertiliser after harvest and in late summer; avoid heavy nitrogen in winter.
Pick
Pick whole clusters when the skin colours fully; fruit doesn't ripen further once picked.

Good to know

Kwai May Pink is the most reliable backyard cropper
Use netting with holes small enough that wildlife can't get tangled
Lightly prune after harvest to keep the tree low enough to net

Common problems

Flying foxes and lorikeets strip the cropuse wildlife-safe exclusion netting
Few or only male flowers after a warm winterlychees need cool nights before flowering
Erinose mite (brown felty leaf patches)prune out affected shoots
Wind damageplant in a sheltered spot

If you use a garden chemical, follow the label exactly. Try organic options first, and ask the community or Plant Doctor if you're unsure.

Ask the garden helper about lycheeAny question, answered from the plant library How others are growing lycheeQuestions, tips and harvests from the community

Wildlife

Good for: bees, birds.

Where this information comes from

ABC Gardening Australia: Fruit Guide (lychee, warm temperate, not frost tolerant) (frost, medium confidence, checked 29 Oct 2026)
ABC Gardening Australia: Growing Lychee Trees (growing, medium confidence, checked 29 Oct 2026)
Shrivastava et al. 2017, Lancet Global Health: Association of acute toxic encephalopathy with litchi consumption, Muzaffarpur, India (toxicity, low confidence)

Reviewed by AI cross-check (Claude), not a horticulturist on 29 Oct 2026. Version 1.

📅When to plant where you live

🏷️Varieties (4)

🪴From seed to plate

Plant

Water

Feed

Pick

💡Good to know