Species

An excellent paper on these fruit bearing cacti has been written by Misrahi Y. and Nerd A. entitled, “Climbing and columnar cacti : New arid land fruit crop.” There is much confusion in the names given to the species in different parts of the world. The two authors have contributed tremendously to clearing up the confusion.

Some climbing cacti : Botanical and common names

Hylocereus undatus red pitaya, strawberry pear, dragon fruit, dragon pearlfruit, thang loy, pitahaya roja
Selenicereus megalanthus pitaya amarilla, yellow pitaya

Some columnar cacti : Botanical and common names

Stenocereus thurberi pitaya dulce
Cereus peruvianus pitaya, apple cactus
Acanthocereus occidentalis pitaya
Echinocereus stramineus pitahaya, Mexican strawberry