Dragon fruit

The dragon fruit is a hardy and succulent cactus, as it is drought resistant, possessing long triangular stems. It often intertwines itself with nearby trees, taking moisture from their bark and climbs 8 to 10 meters from the ground without penetrating the ground. The flower of the dragon fruit is tubular and hermaphroditic due to its dehydration.

It only opens once in the night and its aroma attracts insects. It is self pollinating, but it can also pollinate with other plants, with bats being their biggest pollinators in their natural habitat. The formation of the fruit from pollination to harvest takes 4 to 8 weeks depending on the temperatures.

The fruit is oval shaped, 10 cm by 6 cm. It presents itself from birth as green, turning yellow or red depending on the cultivar. As it develops, it grows scaly skin.

The rind presents groups of sharp and hard spines, detaching with ease. It is a flavorful fruit which contains a smooth, sweet and soft pulp in both yellow and red varieties, but red varieties usually have less sugar.^[3]

Dragon fruits mainly come in three types:^[4]

• Selenicereus undatus has pink-skinned fruit with white flesh. This is the most commonly seen "dragon fruit". It is also known as the following: night blooming cereus, strawberry pear, pitahaya roja, reina de la noche (queen of the night), formerly Hylocereus undatus.
• Selenicereus costaricensis has red-skinned fruit with red flesh. It is also known as Costa Rica nightblooming cactus, Costa Rican pitaya, Hylocereus costaricensis and Hylocereus polyrhizus.
• Selenicereus megalanthus has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh. S. megalanthus is commonly known as "yellow dragon fruit", "yellow pitahaya", "kirin fruit" or "yellow pitaya". It is also formerly known as Hylocereus megalanthus.

The fruit weighs around 150 to 600 grams (5+1⁄2 to 21 oz); some may reach 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz).^[5] Early imports from Colombia to Australia were designated Hylocereus ocampensis (or Cereus repandus, the red fruit) and Cereus triangularis (supposedly, the yellow fruit or the three-sided cross-section of the stem).

The peel is either a purplish green or yellow. The pulp has small black seeds. It loses its smell when it gets warm. The red dragon fruits have either white or red pulp; the red pulp is harder to cultivate, and as such, less frequent, but the flavor is more intense than the ones with white pulp.

The fruits are sensitive to pressure making them difficult to transport. In Europe, it is possible to find them in supermarkets; in Central America they are available from July to December and in Vietnam from January to July. The fruits from Thailand come by plane all year.

The dragon fruit helps with red blood cell creation. 90% of the fruit is composed of water and it is rich in iron, calcium and phosphorus. It also contains vitamins B, C and E. It is rich in fiber, which helps intestinal transit. Its energy value is 210kJ/100g.

Grafting improves the nutritional profile and organoleptic quality (?) of the yellow dragon fruit.^[8]

The main producers in the world for Dragon Fruit are Nicaragua (biggest producer in Central America of Selenicereus sp.). Colombia (biggest producer of Selenicereus megalanthus) the Dominican Republic (Selenicereus monacanthus was used by the Tainos), Peru, Ecuador, Spain (especially in San Miguel de Salinas) (the latter 3 are producers of Selenicereus sp.), Vietnam (biggest producer of Selenicereus undatus in south east Asia), Thailand, Malaysia, Qatar and Israel.^[15]

After a cleaning of the seeds from the pulp of the dragon fruit, the seeds are stored when dried as the ideal fruit is unblemished and overripe.

The seeds grow in a compost or potting soil mix, including pots indoors. The cacti germinate after between 11 and 14 days after shallow planting. As they grow, the plants will find something to climb on, normally involving aerial roots down from the branches, usually in addition to basal roots. Once the plant reaches 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) in weight, the plant may flower.^{[clarification needed]}

Commercial plantings can be done at a density between 1,100 and 1,350 per hectare (445 and 546/acre). Plants can take up to 60 months (260 weeks) to come into full commercial production, at which stage yields of 20 to 30 metric tons (22 to 33 short tons) can be expected.^[16]

Dragon fruit flowers bloom overnight and usually wilt by the evening.^[17] They rely on nocturnal pollinators such as bats or moths for fertilization. Self-fertilization will not produce fruit in some species and while crossbreeding has resulted in several "self-fertile" varieties, cross-pollinating with a second, genetically distinct plant of the same species generally increases fruit set and quality. This limits the capability of home growers to produce the fruit. However, the plants can flower between three and six times per year depending on growing conditions. Like other cacti, if a healthy piece of the stem is broken off, it may take root in the soil and become its own plant.^{[citation needed]}

The plants can endure temperatures up to 40 °C (104 °F) and short periods of frost but will not survive long exposure to freezing temperatures. The cacti thrive most in USDA zones 10–11 but may survive outdoors in zone 9a or 9b.^[2][18]

Selenicereus has adapted to live in dry tropical climates with a moderate amount of rain. In numerous regions, it has escaped cultivation to become a weed and is classified as an invasive weed in some countries.^[1]

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  Dragon fruit "tree"
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  Dragonfruit farm in Andhra Pradesh, India
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  Plantation in Naozhou Island
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  Nocturnal flowering
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  Yellow S. megalanthus
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  Red S. costaricensis
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  Jus buah naga, purple dragon fruit juice, Indonesia
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  Red, yellow and white fruits
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  Dress for a folk dance called Flor de Pitahaya "Pitahaya Flower" from Baja California Sur displayed at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City
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  Dissected dragon fruit
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  A piece of red dragon fruit from Kenya
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  A piece of red dragon fruit from China
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  Fresh ripe dragon fruit in Vietnam