Like i said above, it has a tropical character so it would not need chill or any other stessing technique (girdling/drought) to fruiting. but they were still dimocarpus longan for sure, it just a variation of it. with different flowering habbit and different fruit characters. like fruithunter said its very aromatic (when you put it in the room, it will fill it with pleasant sweet aroma/scent, taste and flavor were resemble some melon/cantaloupe flavor.
since it is a longan it can be easily grafted onto common longan tree. mine were grafted and it take just 6 month (from grafting process took place) to fruiting.
otherwise, you can grow this kind of longan by seed. and it just take approx 4 years (in good condition) to bear the first fruit. but like other longan, it will not true to type. but the variation would only in leaves shape abd size, flavor, fruit size and color. it will maintain it tropical charachters afterall.
in indonesia there is a native longan (well, they acctually came from china but it was long long time ago....hundred years maybe)
and like you said tabbydan, it taste and flavor were quite different from imported thai longan fruit or even with local growing thai cultivar fruit (edaw/biew kiew).
and yes, they were temperate trees, growing and bearing well at high altitude with low temperature region. you can see my longan of this type in my first post on this forum
www.tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=2403.msg33800#msg33800
