Dragon fruit are also know as Pitaya and are a climbing epiphtic cactus that produce interesting looking fruit in warm climates where there is a long warm growing season.
The flowers are large and come in either red or white which determines the colour of the flesh of the fruit (I believe) and they flower at night hence no photo.
 |
| As you can see it is very dry here at the moment so these make the perfect fruit for this type of weather. |
We grew ours from a cutting and it has taken 3 years to fruit so we are glad it finally did. It takes 40 days for the fruit to mature and once they do it is best to chill them overnight then consume immediately.
The flesh in ours is white (they come with red flesh too) and they are dotted with small seed similar to the size you would find in kiwi fruit. The taste is hard to describe but it is sweet, crisp and very refreshing. Perfect in the heat of the summer.
It has been so hot this year that my raspberries have barely survived just look at how sorry they are looking. I know there will be no crop this year but I am giving them some love in hope that they might recover for an autumn crop.
Do you have any interesting or unusual plants growing at your place?
Nothing as cool as that. Pretty cool looking plant. I guess you wont be able to grow it in NZ so i am glad you got to see it fruit. Wild!!! I remember on our honeymoon (20 yrs ago) that we were served a platter of tropical fruit from North Queensland at a cafe in the Daintree. We couldnt stop looking at it because nothing was familiar and everything was as strange as your offering. Some of what we tried was overly sweet with a tang and others we didnt like but i think it was more that it was different.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog. Now get to work and clean that oven. I hope you soaked the racks overnight in laundry soaker. Who Knew? Rhonda of course!
They are such an interesting fruit aren't they and in fact I was at a fruit shop yesterday and saw them and thought how pretty they were. Very clever for growing them. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
ReplyDeleteOh that is one of my favourite fruits. They normally grow so big - you seem to have yours nicely contained.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen dragon fruit! I'm not sure we have anything comparable here. The white flesh was a surprise!
ReplyDelete