the.com/dragonfruit
a cactus pretending to be a tropical celebrity, all flame outside and freckles within.
means The vivid pink-or-yellow scaly fruit of several climbing cactus species, whose mild speckled flesh hides inside a flame-colored, leathery skin.
from A plain English compound of "dragon" and "fruit," almost certainly a translation of names in Southeast Asian languages where the scaly, flame-tipped exterior suggested a dragon — Vietnamese calls it thanh long, "green dragon," and similar dragon-imagery appears in Chinese. The cactus itself (genus Hylocereus and relatives) is native to the Americas, so the fruit is a New World plant wearing an East Asian nickname. Its other common name, pitaya/pitahaya, comes from a Taíno or other Caribbean Indigenous word picked up by Spanish colonizers.
- cactus kid
- Grows on a sprawling climbing cactus, not a tree
- night bloomer
- Flowers open one night, then die by morning
- taste twist
- Looks dramatic, tastes mild like watery kiwi
- bat business
- Wild flowers are pollinated by moths and bats
- color trick
- Red flesh can dye your urine harmlessly pink
pitaya from vietnam — vietnam produces ~60% of world's dragonfruit, exported globally since 1990s
red dragonfruit thailand — thailand's chachoengsao province supplies major asian markets, pink-skinned variety
dragonfruit colombia — colombia grows white-fleshed dragonfruit in cauca region for latin american markets