Rambutan: (Nephelium lappaceum) see illustration. In the months of July and August, fruit stalls and door-to-door vendors in many South East Asian cities present an extra colourful picture. The reason is the bunches of a strange looking oval fruit with bright crimson or yellow skin covered with short fleshy hairs—rambutan—is in season, and plentiful. The word comes from the Malay, 'rambut' meaning hair. Inside is a narrow seed covered with semitransparent flesh which is crisp and mainly sweet. A lot depends on the variety, but it is obvious that the best varieties have been chosen for propagation and export.