The Herbarium
Part IV · Fruit & vegetable
Herb. No. 223
Dragon fruit
Selenicereus undatus
Cactaceae
A night-blooming cactus that fruits in neon — mild white or red flesh speckled with seed, more show than perfume.
Ripe flesh is food. This is a climbing cactus fruit (pitaya), not a medicinal cactus plate.
- Parts used
- Ripe flesh
- Traditional notes
- Kitchen fruit · A hot-climate cactus crop
- Grow · USDA 6b
- Tropical cactus, USDA 10–11; a bright pot or greenhouse north A cutting. It wants a post to climb. In work: Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct
- Harvest
- When the wings dull from green toward yellow-pink and the fruit yields.
- Night flowers last a night. Bats and moths, or a paintbrush.
- Do not treat it like a desert barrel — it is a rainforest cactus.
Safety
Known cactus-fruit allergy (rare) Red flesh will dye the next day’s news, harmlessly
Lore
Spanish pitahaya. Vietnamese thanh long, green dragon. The neon grocery fruit is a 1990s export success more than an ancient palace food. The night flower is the older wonder — a dinner-plate bloom that is gone by breakfast.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.