Stenocereus Species, Dagger Cactus, Mexican Organ Pipe, Pitayo de Mayo

(I would like to grow these for the fruit in San Diego, CA, but do not know if the environment is suitable). Anyway I found two interesti...Read Moreng videos on youtube and a research paper about nutrition. The videos are in Spanish, but even if you don't know the language the pictures are amazing. YouTube, "Techaluta, la cuna de la pitaya", and YouTube, "Conozca las pitayas de Techaluta". These titles are, "Techaluta the cradle of the pitaya", and "Getting to know the pitayas of Techaluta". The first begins in the orchard and ends with preparing the fruit for market. The second video is set in the market. Techaluta is in Jalisco, and they take the fruit to market in Guadalajara, 53 miles away. The farmer explains that the orchard was initiated by his father, and now owned by his uncle. Most plants are between 7 and 20 years old. New plants are propagated from an "arm" of an established plant. He walks throught the tall orchard filled with fruit with a long pole (carrizo) that has a hook with 4 spikes for picking the fruit. This looks like a very elegant solution. Work begins before dawn, 2 or 3 am, so that the product is to market by 8 am. The men harvest the fruit. The women clean the spines from the fruit with knives. They have certainly perfected the technique of de-spining. The fruit is graded by size: small, medium and large. And it ranges in color from red-violet, red, orange, pink, yellow, and some white. The fruit is packed in baskets using alfalfa as a packing material to protect the fruit and to keep it cool. At the market the woman explains that in addition to the fruit the mature dried flower also is used. This is boiled in water to make a tea that she says helps to control blood sugar, reduce blood pressure and reduce cholesterol. Finally, the reporter eats a fruit. Check out the technique. The skin is cut and peeled back from the center of the top of the fruit and peeled back in triangular pieces so that it looks like an open flower with a juicy spherical fruit in the center. The first video was produced by "Grupo Reforma", Angel Llamas. The second video was for the news, "Azteca Noticias". (I couldn't make out the reporter's name). Finally, it looks like this fruit has lots of healthy antioxidants, especially betalains. A study compared the red fruit with an orange fruit and the red fruit was higher in antioxidants. [From BETALAINS, PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN
PITAYA DE MAYO (Stenocereus griseus H.)
Leticia García-Cruz, Yolanda Salinas-Moreno, and Salvador Valle-Guadarrama].

This cactus eventually forms a trunk with much age and reaches 20-30 feet high. The younger plants have many more spines. It blooms at ni...Read Moreght and the flowers stay open until midday. (another night blooming Cereus -aka Ceroid)
This plant is grown for it's fruit.

Other synonyms are: Cereus erbuneus, Cereus deficiens, Lemaireocereus deficiens, Lemaireocereus eburneus, Ritterocereus deficiens, Rathbunia deficiens, Stenocereus eburneus, Stenocereus deficiens, Stenocereus victoriensis & Neolemaireocereus griseus

Note: The synonym 'Lemaireocereus pruinosis' is not a synonym of this species. Instead, it is actually a synonym of Stenocereus pruinosus which is a different species entirely.

tall columnar Venezualan and Mexican cactus growing up to 30' tall. Many synonyms