Rambutan, Hairy Lychee
Nephelium lappaceum · Sapindaceae · 람부탄
How to spot it
The most distinctive feature is the red fruit covered with soft spines (hair-like).
Look
- Leaves
- Even-pinnate compound leaves with 1 to 5 (to 8) leaflets, elliptic (5 to 22 cm long, 2.5 to 10.5 cm wide), papery.
- Flowers
- Cream to yellow-green flowers cluster in long spike-like inflorescences with 5 to 8 stamens.
- Fruit
- Elliptic to nearly globose fruits are covered with tapering soft spines and turn red when ripe; a juicy, edible white aril surrounds a single seed.
- Bark
- Mature bark is smooth.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to primary rainforest in tropical Asia.
- Ecology
- A tree that attracts birds and a host plant of butterflies.