Talk:Pitaya

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Perhaps it's just the lighting, but this thing has to be not only the most nauseatingly ugly fruit in the world, but the most nauseatingly ugly object of any kind.-Ashley Pomeroy 17:11, 23 May 2005 (UTC) It may be ugly to look at, but I had some dragonfruit juice given to me before I saw the thing. The juice is sweet even my kids loved it. I don't know if I'll ever find any more though as what was given to us came from a source that we wouldn't normally have. It was a nice treat. ^-^

  • Some people do consider it to be a beautiful ornamental fruit. I've seen gardeners planting it in Taiwan for the fun of it. There are also websites created by enthusiasts in the United States who want to teach people how to plant it in the non-frost regions of the United States. Allentchang 16:46, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
  • What's so ugly about it? I just saw them in a market and bought some on the strength of their appearance alone. Beautiful scarlet-pink skin with vibrant green leaves. Compared to the kiwi, for exaple, this fruit is a visual treat.

I dunno. I kinda agree that it's pretty ugly. This is my first time seeing it, though I've had dragonfruit juice on many occasions. I mean, I'm still going to drink it, but I'm glad I don't have to look at the fruits whole. To the person who didn't know where they'd ever get the juice again: it's in fairly common production in the US - SoBe, Vitamin Water, and Naked Juice (the only wholly natural one of the three) all market dragonfruit beverages, and I'm sure there are others. If anyone has a broader scope of dragonfruit juice distribution, they should add it to the article. -VJ 00:33, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Depends on how its served: The first time I ever saw or ate one was at a buffet in Xian,;it was cut to include just a bit of the pinkish/reddish rind so the look isn't as ugly --only bizarre (especially if you've never seen a pink, white, polka-dot fruit before. I thought it was candy at first. Bobak 23:27, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
Now that I understand how to upload photos, I added my CC photo. I also created a Gallery at the bottom since the article was already cluttered by the photos. Bobak 20:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Ugly!? This has to be the most exotically beautiful fruit that I've ever seen! I haven't yet had the pleasure of tasting dragon fruit, but if I were ever given the opportunity to taste some for myself, I'd jump at the chance. The red-fleshed variety isn't so aesthetically appealling, I admit, but I think the red-skinned pitaya is just gorgeous.--Teebs101 04:10, 10 January 2007 (UTC) Is it really a concern of Wikipedia if something is ugly? I think that's a personal view that really doesn't need to be in Wikipedia. DKFlamez 18:57, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

That's what talk pages are for, DK. Mumblebot (talk) 23:57, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] name dragon-fruit

To truly understand why it is called dragon-fruit you gotta see the tree. There should be an image of it here.Ortho 03:37, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

How odd that so much discussion is on how "ugly" the fruit is. Different from what there used to is more likely. My guess is that many of the responders would only buy shiny, red, waxed and perfectly formed, and perhaps flavorless, red delicious apples.--Patrizia

Many shops in bangkok sell Vietnamese dragon fruit ( red shell and white flesh ) and it looks a bit odd. The leaves cut off and the fruit cut in half and your into the flesh which is pleasant and watery. I would think it would lend itself to a fruit mix ( say with bananas or strawberries ). It is said to be a good antioxidant but i would like to know what minerals and vitamins it contains.


[edit] Taxo-box

Moved from the rather uninformative Hylocereus undatus, now redirected. Not sure what to do with it as it only refers to one variety. Tearlach 09:35, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Hylocereus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Tribe: Hylocereeae
Genus: Hylocereus
Species: Hylocereus undatus

[edit] Unofficial comments on how to raise pitaya plants

I wrote this in someone else's talk page and decided to include it here for everyone's benefit.

The bonsai picture was taken a few weeks ago. The bottom plant was bought in a nursey around August. The top left plant was planted at about the same time. Since that was my first time to plant the pitaya seeds, the top left plant turned out to be a little unruly. The top right plant was purchased about two weeks before I took the picture. If you look carefully, you might see one or two pitaya seed shells on the top right plant! Some of my friends almost thought I was raising catepillars when they saw the tiny branches.

I beleive it is possible to grow a pitaya bonsai indoors in Long Island. What you need is plenty of light (a dedicated lamp should suffice). During the winter when your radiator or heating system is on resulting in low indoor humidity, you might want to water the plants every other day. Otherwise, water the plants once every three to four days. As long as you don't let your room to be at freezing temperatures, the pitaya should do fine.

My impression is that the size of plants is partially restrained by the size of their pot, so I suspect that my pitaya bonsai will remain a bonsai. As for the small leaves, they should eventually disappear, although you probably have noticed from the picture that they have not for the past seven to eight months.

Here's my personal experience with the regular size dragonfruit plant. If you cut off a branch of a large pitaya plant, plant it in a large pot, place the pot in a region with moderate sunlight, and use plenty of organic fertilizer such as chicken poo, in two years the plant would have covered the entire wall/barrier of an apartment porch. Also in two years the pitaya will probably bear fruit. The pitaya is a very organic plant in the sense that no pesticides are needed and environemental friendly fertilizer can be used.

I would think that California would be an okay environment to grow pitaya. I'm just extremeley surprised that this fruit hasn't become popular in the United States whereas in Asia, it's a massive hit. Many Asians actually believe that this native Latin American fruit originated from Vietnam. The first time I saw this fruit was when the trade embargo between Taiwan and Vietnam was lifted.

In the United States, I saw the fruit once at Berkeley Bowl (a large produce store) in Berkeley, CA. One can order them from www.melissas.com , but they charge three pieces for a highway robbery price of US$48.00, shipping not included. In Taiwan, the standard price is US$1 for one white fleshed fruit and about US$6 for an extermely high quality (gift-like) fruit. Allentchang 13:11, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How Long?

How long does it take seedlings to bear? Are they true to seed? How about cuttings?

They can be true to seed, but you should use cuttings if you want fruits within two years or so. I'm not a farmer, but this is based on my three and a half years experience growing the plant. Allentchang 13:50, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Taste?

Having recently eaten a fruit that had this pink appearance (Hylocereus undatus) I found that while the texture was virtually identical to kiwifruit, the taste was quite different. I found that what I ate was fairly bland while every kiwifruit I've eaten was tangy and very sweet. Has anyone else sampled one of the other varieties and found that the taste was indeed similar to kiwifruit? (→Netscott) 15:58, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

It does indeed have a kiwi-like texture however a very bland almost non-existant taste. User:Nexus/s1.js 21:57, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah.. it has the texture of a kiwi and no taste. 74.104.224.144 23:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

I ate one with white flesh and pink skin. The flesh tasted like a kiwi, but much milder, while the peel tasted like green beans. -- Gordon Ecker 06:49, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

-- how do you know when it's ripe or ready to eat? slightly soft? exude a ripening odor? maybe the bland tasting ones were of unripened specimens. i have one on my kitchen table right now... not sure when to cut it up. dave 71.63.240.138 (talk) 00:50, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


Darn, this is making me hungry. Do they usually sell them at grocery stores? I never bothered to look. Mumbles (talk) 01:27, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nutrition Discussion

The following section is in the article: Dragonfruit is rich in fiber, Vitamin C and minerals. The typical nutritional value per 100g of dragonfruit is as follows:

Ashes? Since when are ashes an aspect of nutrition? Also, the components given only add up to 94.277 grams. This might be a translation issue.

  • It seems to come from here... "Ashes" = Other. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.109.48.18 (talk) 01:09, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
"Ashes" means indeterminate inorganic content. See calorimetry - you get such leftovers when you determine the nutritional value. It's basically "0.68% of this fruit your body can't really use one way or another." Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 00:22, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

This website has informations about this; i just don't know how to put the citation. http://www.angelfire.com/ia2/ingenieriaagricola/pitaya.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.122.124.54 (talk) 16:28, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I have added the information and given ranges, because there are some differences between the species (which I have also annotated). Note how I changed the references - check out the source, it is much more compact now. There is really no need to do references in the one way that puts the most code in the running text and is hardest to understand, especially not in an article like this where new users will frequently want to edit... :D Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 00:22, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Low importance?!

People throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia eat this fruit even though it originated from North America! Asians are so used to this fruit that it would not be too surprising that many Asians think that this fruit originated from some part of Asia. I do hope no US-centrism was used to rate the importance of this article. Allentchang 14:47, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I had some on a flight from Samui to Bangkok, polka dot freakiness but tasty. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.246.228 (talk) 08:40, 7 January 2008 (UTC)