"This is the world's first new hybrid of longan and lychee, which is groundbreaking." On August 23, 2022, the 2022 late-maturing high-quality longan and litchi intergeneric hybrid new variety "Crispy Honey (SZ52)" on-site observation and tasting meeting was held in Conghua, Guangzhou. According to Liu Chengming, a breeding expert of the technical system longan innovation team (hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong longan innovation team"), "Crispy Honey (SZ52)" has late maturity, large and high-quality fruit, strong growth potential, strong cold resistance, and wide adaptability. And other characteristics, has great development potential.

 New Intergeneric Hybrid Variety with Obvious Heterosis 

Longan and litchi belong to the genera Longan and Litchi respectively in taxonomy. "Cuimi" was originally called "Shizi Cuimi". It is a new variety bred with Shixia longan as the female parent and Ziniangxi litchi as the male parent through cross-breeding between genera. This variety combines some of the advantages of Shixia longan and Ziniangxi lychee. Its flesh is tender and crisp, completely free of dross, and its sugar content is as high as 20-24%. "'Crisp' and 'honey' sum up its characteristics well." Liu Chengming said.

Is this hybrid variety litchi or longan? Liu Chengming explained that, in fact, "Cruise Honey" is still a longan variety, but its flesh is very tender, which is similar to that of litchi. In addition, the cracked slices of the peel of "Cruise Honey" are obvious, and they are in the shape of bumps, which is also a variety of litchi. unique features.

"CuiMi" matures 15-20 days later than Shixia longan, and it usually matures in mid-to-late August in Guangzhou. "The 'CuiMi' in our orchard will mature in about 10 days, and all of them have been booked out now." Liu Ruibo, the person in charge of Liding Shuixi Orchard in Conghua, has grafted more than 100 "CuiMi" trees, and the yield and quality are very good. Well, he has a lot of confidence in the breed.

"CuiMi" branches have strong growth ability, and the tree is vigorous. Shuixi Orchard started grafting "CuiMi" in March 2020, and it started to bear fruit last year, which is related to the growth characteristics of "CuiMi". According to reports, "Crispy Honey" has 7 pairs of leaflets on a single compound leaf (Shixia longan has 5 pairs and litchi has only 3 pairs). The leaflets are large, the total leaf area is large, and the light energy utilization efficiency is high. Therefore, the bred flower spikes and The fruit ears are also larger, and it is easy to achieve the goal of high and stable yield.

Another important feature of "CuiMi" is that it is more resistant to low temperature and has strong cold resistance. In January 2021, Chaozhou experienced a low temperature of -3 to -4°C. The branches of Shixia longan in the same area were severely frozen, and the leaves were dry, yellow and curled. The degree of frost damage reached level 4, but the leaves of "CuiMi" were only slightly damaged. The degree of frost damage is only level 1.

15 years of continuous research to break through the breeding bottleneck and select excellent single plants