Four longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) plants of the main cultivars including Shijia, Chuliang, Fuyan and Songfengben, with the age of 16-17 a and the yield of medium to high level, were harvested from the main production areas in South China, respectively. The biological attributes of the plants were examined, and the nutrient uptake and accumulation in various parts of the plants were investigated, with the aim to supply basis data for the nutrient management in longan. The mean weight of the aboveground biomass of the four plants was 264.3 kg, with 28.4% of fruit, 12.3% of leaf and 59.3% of trunk. When the fruit matured, the content of Ca was the highest in the leaf, trunk, root and peel, and that of K and N was the highest in the pulp and seed, respectively. 668.6 g of N, 102.0 g of P, 461.6 g of K, 1310.4 g of Ca, 80.7 g of Mg, 43.3 g of S, 63.8 g of Si, 20.1 g of Fe, 5.8 g of Mn, 349.9 mg of Cu, 1245.9 mg of Zn, 849.5 mg of B and 8.7 mg of Mo were taken up in the aboveground parts to produce 50 kg fruit. It indicated that Ca was the most demanded nutrient by longan. The nutrient removal by 50 kg fruit included N 167.8 g, P 23.1 g, K 156.4 g, Ca 57.0 g, Mg 12.6 g, S 8.4 g, Si 0.7 g, Fe 0.7 g, Mn 0.4 g, Cu 110.5 mg, Zn 155.6 mg, B 125.3 mg and Mo 1.6 mg. The nutrient removal by fruit harvest should be the minimum of nutrients applied to maintain the soil fertility and plant growth for next year. Based on the observations of foliar nutrient deficiency symptoms and fruit abnormity caused by nutrient imbalance, we suggest that Ca, Mg, Si and B nutrition in longan are worthy to be furthered investigated.
