Integration between Chinese experiential agronomy and American experimental agronomy: George Weidman Groff and his studies on Chinese lychee

With the establishment of many research institutions of agricultural science at the beginning of the 20^th century, China has started a historic transformation from empirical agronomy to experimental agronomy.
As the first agricultural missionary to China, George Weidman Groff, an American horticulturist and professor of Lingnan University, was an iconic figure in agricultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in the first half of the 20^th century. The Lychee and Lungan, published by Groff in Guangzhou and New York in 1921, is the first monograph on lychee scientific research worldwide.
The documentary values of Groff’s lychee studies mainly include the following three aspects.
First, Groff’s studies provide rich first-hand graphic and textual data for exploring the lychee industry in the Pearl River Delta region in the Republic of China.
Second, The Lychee and Lungan is an important work to explore the records, studies and introduction of Chinese lychee in Western countries.
Last, Groff’s studies also have important historical value for the research of Sino-U.S. agricultural exchanges and cooperation in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
Lychee is native to China, with the country’s most prosperous industrial development and cultural accumulation, and is the pride of China’s agriculture and farming culture.
Groff’s studies have the best explanation for this notion.

VII International Symposium on Lychee, Longan and Other Sapindaceae Fruits

Y. Li, F. Zhao

lychee, The Lychee and Lungan, George Weidman Groff, Lingnan University

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2026.1447.4