Brewster

'Brewster' is the cultivar that started lychee growing in the United States. Between 1903 and 1906 the Reverend William N. Brewster, a Methodist missionary stationed in Fujian, shipped air-layers of the Chinese cultivar 'Chen Zi' (also written Chen Tze, the 'Royal Chen Purple') from Fuzhou to Florida, and the clone was renamed for him; part of an original Brewster grove still stands in Davie. It remains the second most widely planted cultivar in Florida and is also grown in Hawaii. Growers accept its erratic cropping because the fruit carries an unusually intense rose-and-lychee perfume that most other cultivars cannot match. Tropical Tree Guide classifies it as a 'water type' lychee - a big, open, moisture-hungry canopy rather than a compact mountain-type tree. Sow Exotic sells it as a mid- to late-summer harvest alongside 'Sweetheart'.