Dimocarpus longan

Nowadays it is easy to get cuttings of Longan plant already in fruit from the nurseries in singapore.  I heard that these plants are the result of many years of experimenting with hybridizing the local variety with the Thai variety. 

Actually Longans are native to S.E.Asia but cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics especially Thailand, Taiwan and China.  Dimocarpus longan var. malesianus, the mata kuching, is a subspecies of longan that is better adapted to tropical lowland conditions.  But this variety bears small fruit with thin, soft flesh which is not so appealing. But Mata Kuching has a slightly sweeter fragrance than Longan. 

This hybrid has qualities from the two types of Longans.  It is bigger than Mata Kuching, with thicker flesh which is softer than Longan, bears the Mata Kuching fragrance and is VERY sweet.

These pictures were all taken on the same day to show how crazy my tree is.  While it is bearing almost ripe fruits on some branches, others are already preparing to flower and there are flower buds in various stages of development.  It is truly a Longan tree gone crazy and it had been like this since two years ago so i get lots of  Longans almost every 3 months.