Li Jujube

Li traces to a real, well-documented event: in 1908, USDA agricultural explorer Frank Meyer — the same explorer already documented in this database as the discoverer of Meyer lemon — traveled to China and collected 67 jujube varieties, including Li from Shanxi Province, formally catalogued under USDA Plant Introduction number 38249. Along with Lang, also documented in this database, Li went on to become one of the two dominant commercially available jujube cultivars in the United States, and remains the single most widely grown jujube variety in the country today. The fruit is large, round to oval, with skin that shifts from green through yellow-green to mahogany as it ripens, crisp, apple-like flesh, and a very sweet flavor with subtle tang.