Longan is an exotic fruit that we still can not often find on sale, like feijoa or cannon. It grows mainly in China, it is also found in Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Longan tree
What is this fruit? Inside it is watery and almost entirely composed of vitamins, carbohydrates and trace elements. There is practically no fat and protein there. All this flesh is under rather dense skin. But removing it is very easy. The hue of the peel may be yellowish or slightly red, the surface is covered with dents.
The longan tree has a fragile trunk and grows up to 20 m. It is grown in warm countries (where the temperature does not fall below 5 ° C), since it does not tolerate frost. But during the flowering the plant prefers coolness, because it is more often found in North Vietnam. Fruits on the tree grow in clusters, as we have grapes.
The taste of longan is sweet and juicy, the pulp has a bright musk aroma. Only three main varieties are grown for export. The first has a rounded shape and irregular outlines in the upper part, the skin itself is a greenish-brown hue. The second grade is more flattened, and the shade of the skin is more dark brownish in color. The third exported variety has a spherical fruit of brown color, its pulp of pink hue.
Quite often, a longan fruit is compared to lychee. The second name for the "dragon's eye" was a longan for the likeness of the fetus in the section with the eye of a reptile. Longan plant is valued in its homeland for a number of useful properties:
- in the pulp there is a large amount of iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, vitamins A and C;
- not so long ago, scientists have proven the presence in it of substances with antioxidant properties, which reduce the influence of various kinds of chemicals and help protect the liver;
- in the pulp contains riboflavin, which is the source of polysaccharides - all this allows you to maintain health at the cellular level;
- Longan fruit is actively used to relieve fatigue, dizziness, tone increase and eat with general weakness of the body and pallor.
But it is always worth remembering that all tropical novelties can cause quite serious bouts of allergy.
At us this fruit in a fresh kind meets not so often. Export it in a dried or canned form. With this treatment, all useful properties are preserved, and the product can be sent to the far corners of the world without loss. If you are lucky enough to find fresh fruits, you can eat them simply, add them to salads or desserts.
Longan - growing at home
If you get a seed in your hands, be sure to try to grow a longan tree out of it, since nothing is complicated in this. Before growing a longan from a bone, it must be removed from the pulp and dried on a napkin for a day or two. Then we act step by step.
- We wrap the planting material in a cotton damp cloth. We put the workpiece on a pallet and cover it with polyethylene.
- Then we wait. Like all seeds, longan grows only under conditions of constant moisture and a sufficiently high temperature. As
The cloth should be sprayed from the spray gun. - Approximately a week or two on the seed, a small root is formed.
- Plant germinated seeds to a depth of about 6 cm. The spine at this time looks down.
- Plant a longan in a vase with a good layer of drainage and loose nutrient soil.
- In two weeks you will see shoots, and after another two or three sprouts will reach a height of several centimeters.
- Further, cultivation of longan at home is practically the same as caring for such tropical plants from the stone.