Long Yan Rou

Dimocarpus longan is an evergreen tropical and subtropical tree in the family Sapindaceae, native to southern China, northern Indochina, and southern Asia, and now widely cultivated for its edible fruit throughout Southeast Asia, southern India, and Florida. Mature trees reach 10-20 m in height with a dense, broad, rounded crown and dark, rough, corky bark. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves have 4-10 elliptic to oblong-lanceolate leaflets 6-15 cm long, glossy dark green above and paler beneath. Small yellowish-white, fragrant, five-petalled flowers are borne in large terminal and axillary panicles in spring, attracting bees. The fruit is a globose drupe 1.5-2.5 cm across, with a thin, leathery, yellowish-brown shell that surrounds a single shiny black seed coated by a translucent, sweet, juicy, white edible aril, the longan. The dried, pulpy aril (Long Yan Rou) is the medicinal and culinary part used as a tonic.