liangnan's famous fruits

there are 500 kinds of fruits in guangzhou. among these fruits, litchi, banana, papaya and pineapple are of wide distribution, large quantity and fine quality, reputed as lingnan's four major fruits. other fruits include mango, carambola, pomegranate, longan, white olive, black olive, red bayberry, honey pineapple, sanhua pear and water melon, etc.

located in subtropical zone, guangzhou is favored with a great variety of tropical and subtropical fruits. fresh fruits are always available at markets all the year round, hence the reputation of 'home of fruits'. fruit plantation in guangzhou can be traced back to the han dynast. according to historical records, emperor hanwudi of the han dynasty once collected tributes of 'palace tangerines' from lingnan. wujiao prefecture's governor shixie once paid tributes of 'auspicious tangerines' to sunquan during the period of the three kingdoms. these tributes paid to emperors all referred to sweet oranges, not today's mandarin oranges or tangerines.

based on investigation resulted in 1960, guangzhou's fruits belong to 40 families, 77 genus, 132 species or subspecies. there are more that 500 kinds of fruits. among them, 33 are fine-quality species introduced from other places. famous species include zengcheng's gualu litchi, huangdeng's pineapple, luogang's sweet orange, shixia's longan, fangcun's huadi sweet carambola, etc. new species have been bred in recent years such as august litchi, hongjiang orange, daguo longan, hongfan papaya and cuibaowater melon, etc.