Costa Rica Red Dragon Fruit

Description:

Costa Rican Red Dragon fruit. Beautiful bright magenta red fruit growing on flowering cactus vines. Stem scandent, 1-3 (-10) cm wide, usually very thick; ribs 3 (-4), margins straight to shallowly scallop-lobed; internodes 2-3.5 x 0.1-0.2 cm; often folded, areoles on prominences, bearing dense, short wool and (1-) 3-6 (-9) short, dark spines 2–4 mm, hairs 2, often bristle-like, soon dropping; epidermis grayish green, +- glaucous in fresh material. Flowers funnel-shaped, 22–30 cm long, strongly perfumed, young buds globular; cylindric-ovoid, ca 4 cm long, bracteoles narrow, foliaceous, numerous, imbricate, 1–2 cm long; receptacle stout, 10–15 cm, throat obconic, 6 cm in wide at the orifice, bracteoles foliaceous, persistent, particularly imbricating towards the base, green with purple margins; tepals 11–15 cm, the outer greenish yellow, the inner white; stigma lobes ca. 12, not forked; ovary covered with large, broadly to narrowly triangular, overlapping bracteoles, 0.5–3 cm. Fruit broadly ovate to globose, bright magenta, pupla purple; seeds pear-shaped, black, ca 10mm. A super antioxidant fruit considered a super food.

Habitat:

The vine-like epiphytic pitahaya-producing cacti of the genus Hylocereus are native to Mexico, Central America, and South America. Currently, they are also cultivated in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia and more recently Bangladesh.[1][2] They are also found in Okinawa, Hawaii, Israel, northern Australia, southern China[3] and in Cyprus. The fruit was probably introduced by Europeans who brought it from the New World.[4] In the case of Taiwan, the fruit was brought in by the Dutch.[5] Hylocereus blooms only at night; the large white fragrant flowers of the typical cactus flower shape are among those called "moonflower" or "Queen of the Night". Sweet pitahayas have a creamy pulp and a delicate aroma. It is also grown as an Ornamental plant, used in gardens as a flowering vine and a house plant indoors. Guatemala to northeast Peru. Dry forest and coastal areas, 0–1400 m altitude and nestled precariously on rocky Costa Rica Pacific coast cliffs.

Notes:

delicious, highly antioxidant wild fruit is magenta inside. Peel and eat, cubed, frozen, seedless or with seeds. Seeds may be crushed and eaten, highly nutritious. An easily cultivated, fast growing epiphyte or xerophyte. Needs a compost containing plenty of humus and sufficient moisture in summer. It should not be kept under 10°C (50°F) in winter. Can be grown in semi-shade or full sun. Extra light in the early spring will stimulate budding. Flowers in summer or autumn. This fruit is one of the few to have indicaxanthin, a betalain, a type of plant pigment antioxidant. To prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh. The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit because of its black, crunchy seeds. The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids,[13] but they are indigestible unless chewed. The fruit is also converted into juice or wine, or used to flavour other beverages. The flowers can be eaten or steeped as tea. The skin is not eaten, and in farm-grown fruit it may be polluted with pesticides.[citation needed] Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rican Pitaya) may result in a harmless reddish coloration of the urine (pseudohematuria) and of the faeces.[14] Several of the Padres who missionized Baja California recorded an unusual form of consumption of pitaya that is also shared in some O'odham stories from southern Arizona. It is called the "second harvest" of pitaya seeds. With the scarcity of fruits in their lands, the pitaya was such a prized fruit that once it was eaten, the natives would wait for their own excrement to dry, then break it apart separating the pitaya seeds. These seeds would be ground into a flour and eaten again, giving the pitaya's "second harvest" its name. Interestingly, the O'odham name for the Milky Way translates as "the second harvest of pitaya."[15]