Dragonfruits show up occasionally in U.S. grocery stores, big funny-looking tropical fruits. They are staples of fruit markets in the tropics. They turn out to be the fruits of a big cactus.
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| dragonfruits, Serenicereus undatus, pitayas |
Cactus fruits? Actually, where cacti are native, people often eat their fruits, prickly pears for example. But only a few cacti are grown commercially or are eaten outside of their native range (they are almsot all from the Americas, especially our deserts). Dragonfruit is one cactus fruit found around the world. It is raised commercially in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam.
I first noticed them in China and I thought the name was because the Chinese, loving dragons, put an attractive name on a new fruit. My sources said it was more a Vietnamese fruit and was named because the red scaly surface looks like dragon scales. Another common name is pitaya, which means "scaly fruit" in Taino, the people of the Greater Antilles when Europeans arrived.The video The History of Simple Things (see excellent video link) says the fruit arrived in southeast Asia as pitaya and the Vietnamese renamed it dragonfruit, because, yes, it looks like dragon scales but also to promote it, giving it all the positive associations that go with Asian dragons.
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| dragonfruit fruit Serenicereus undatus |
Not only are red dragonfruits covered in red dragonlike scales with green tips, the inside is a surprise. It is white with hundreds of tiny black seeds.
Dragonfruits are eaten all the ways we eat fruit: peeled and eaten raw, sliced, added to fruit dishes, mushed into smoothies, and so on. The flavor is mild and pleasant, described as "a mixture of strawberries and kiwifruit" or "strawberry pear". I see them now and then in Colorado grocery stores; those are not as good as in a market in Hawaii or south Asia, where they have not been shipped as far, but tasty nevertheless.
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The commonest dragonfruit's scientific name is Selenicereus undatus. Related plants, red-fleshed dragonfruit, Selenicereus costaricensis, and yellow dragonfruit, Selenicereus megalanthus, produce similar edible fruits, creating some of the color variation you can find in dragonfruits: the former has a red husk and red flesh inside, the latter has a yellow skin with white flesh inside.
Selenicereus means "moon cereus" or "moonlight cereus" referring to the flower that opens at night. Selenicereus species were previously classified as Hylocereus and before that as Cereus. Cereus is Latin for a wax taper, which describes the long narrow branches of these cacti. (The green of these plants is photosynthetic stems and braches; as far as I can tell it has no actual leaves expect as a seedling. This is common among cacti). The genus Hylocereus has merged into Selenicereus a few years ago, all of the species of Hylocereus have been reclassified as Selenicereus. The species epithet undatus means "wavy" describing the stems, costraricensis means "of Costa Rica" and megalanthus means "big flowered."
I don't know what I expected as the plant that produced the dragonfruit, a small tree like a redbud (Cercis) maybe, but certainly not a cactus. But dragonfruit is a cactus, a big cactus that climbs. Dragonfruits don't support themselves, they sprawl and lean. Growers provide the poles while in nature it climbs other plants, sometimes growing off the ground as an epiphyte. Tied to a stake, the long branches go off in all directions. This gets called a"dragonfruit tree" but its only a tree because humans tied it up.
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| dragonfruit plant, in flower |
The flowers are gorgeous big white flowers that open in the night, with a strong sweet smell. In their native range they are pollinated by bats and moths. Bees will visit them but hand pollinating increases fruit production in cultivation.
Note the flower sticks way out from the plant, to make it easy for flying pollinators.
Dragonfruits are drought-hardy but will not survive more than a touch of frost. Note the one above is in a pot: it is growing in Vallejo, California, which gets occasional frosts, so it can easily be moved indoors.
The red fruit forms where the flower was. Like a christmas cactus, a happy dragonfruit can have a flower near the end of each branch and so, develop a fruit there later. (See photos on Wikipedia or Google).
Garden websites encouraging you to grow dragonfruit say it is fastest to take a cutting but that seeds will flower in 3-5 years.
Mine probably will take longer.
I bought the dragonfruit because I saw it in the grocery store. I ate it, but in the process I felt sorry for all the seeds I was destroying. Often fruits and vegetables are treated gently enough in shipping that you can germinate the seeds. I have done that will all kinds of things over the years. Right now, I have 3 peach and 3 apricot trees in the back yard because I stuck seeds into the ground. So I spread the dragonfruit seeds on potting soil. It was February, my climate is too cold for dragonfruit to grow outdoors, what was I going to do with dragonfruit plants if the grew?...I had no idea. I think I didn't expect anything to germinate.
I was wrong. Lots of seedlings appeared:
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| dragonfruit seedlings |
Above are the seedlings about a month after I planted them. They came up in about a week. They look like ordinary dicot seedlings, with two seed leaves, not cactusy at all. I had three of these 2" diameter pots with seedlings, using a very small part of the dragonfruit.
Here is how they looked in August, tiny cacti
They continued to grow and the first adult stems had spines. In the photo below, look at the plant leaning out of the pot at the 1:00 position. The tiny spines catch the light.
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| dragonfruit seedlings at about 2 months |
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| dragonfruit seedlings at 6 months |
But they've had a tough winter, at cool house temperatures and in mediocre light. Below is what they look like this week, at just over 1 year. They sprawl, even when tiny. They are okay but I doubt they'll be big enough to flower in 2-4 years.
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| the dragonfruit seedlings at 1 year |
They are a joy and a problem to me. They will turn into big sprawling plants. They need warm temperatures, strong light, and support. I could maybe keep two; my house lacks great spots for tropical plants in winter. I've killed all the other seedlings during this year by thinning some, trying to transplant others, and trying to see if they liked it outside this past summer. These guys will be difficult to transplant, so I guess they get to compete in the pot for a while. It may not be a practical dream, but I'd love to grow they big enough to produce one of those amazing flowers.
In summary, dragonfruits are tasty tropical fruits from a viny cactus. I found them easy germinate from a grocery store dragonfruit, and it has been fun to watch the seedlings turn into cacti.
Comments and corrections welcome.
References
Stearn, W. T. 1972. Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. Casell Publishing Company. London.
van Wyk, B.-E. 2005. Food Plants of the World. Timber Press. Portland, Oregon.
verifying names:
Flora of North America Seleicereus link
Plants of the World online (Kew Gardens, England) link
Wikipedia Selenicereus
Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
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