IF the images are of the fei zi xiao lychee, then no, based on color alone, its not the sweetheart (and I don't think that they are being picked so early to be not fully red).

By the way, what is your point here anyway ? You expecting an email to down under to tell you yes or no that they are the same ?

Me thinks you have too much time and thoughts on your hands...

Thanks for your opinion.

This is a hobby of mine, and learning about tropical fruits and researching things on the internet are things that I enjoy doing in my free time.

Glad I have a nice job that pays well and still allows me to have ample time to do the things that I enjoy :)

keep in mind, the internet can be a dangerous place. You can't always rely on everything you read :)

This forum is becoming a dangerous place.

Huh? Rob....are you having a bad day? Me thinks you owe Brad an apology. If not, you are likely start getting questions about your moniker here at the forum. The Bullie part they'll understand....but the BS part might have them to wondering. :-))

Harry

Brad - in all fairness, what I said didn't come out right. It wasn't meant to be an attack on you personally, sorry :) (and to all others who felt what I said was an attack).

The more I think about it, since there is more than a lot of thought/opinion that Sweetheart IS the same as Hak Ip, maybe your post or inquest should have been is Hak Ip/Sweetheart the same as Fei Zi Xiao...now, my answer would be a polite no, I don't believe so. The images of the fei zi xiao do not look color-wise like the Hak Ip/Sweethearts I have seen (again, those pictures on google images also may not be true and correct of the actual fei zi xiao lychee).

Unfortunately for us in SFla/United States, there are probably a lot of varieties available that we just don;t know of. Maybe some good research would be to see what you could do to try and get some of these brought here and try and grow them to see what they really turn out to be when grown here.

Rob

Awww...that's much better. Thanks, Rob, for clearing up the misunderstanding. The air cleaning is most appreciated. There's way too much negativity in the world already. This forum is a good place to escape from that madness....into a madness which is a whole lot more fun and tasty!!

Harry

Thanks Rob.

Actually, there was more behind my post. I have read the original story on the Sweetheart lychee website, which states that it was a named cultivar from Australia which lost its tag.

I have seen pics of Sweetheart lychees and of Hak Ip lychees. The two are not the same size. The leaves and growth patterns of the trees are not the same. Sure, some Hak Ips are being called Sweetheart mistakenly now, and possibly for sales, but I have seen two distinct trees and fruits.

So it probably wasn't a specific rare variety that this guy had seeked out, as he didn't even remember the name or set these specific trees apart. That leads me to believe that it was one of the more commonly available varieties in Australia.

I forwarded the Sweetheart history article as well as a link to the tree/leaves pics from this site, and another link with the fruit pics from this site from one of the California members.

To me, it's about solving a little mystery.

Thanks for the apology. I did take it the wrong way initially :)

Brad

Not that I am paying for it but MY guess is that if genetic tests were done on Hak Ip and Sweetheart you may find they are more than similar but possibly the same. How do I explain the growth habit differences, mmmmm, I can't. Fruit does look very similar, almost identical.

Rob

Brad,
I did the same hunt through Australian cultivars last year looking for what the sweetheart could actually be. I found one cultivar that could possibly of been it but I lost interest before I could do further research. Let me see if I can find that cultivar again. I think the cultivar was a Hak Ip seedling. Not sure though.

i tried some "fei zi xiao" in China. they are excellent, very similar to sweetheart in size and shape. the taste is pretty decent - my home grown sweetheart is still better "fei zi xiao" is also good considering they are not home grown. however the color is green red instead of red only for sweetheart. also, "fei zi xiao" is an early lychee variety in china, but sweetheart is not considered an early type.

so I don't believe they are the same.