The amazing Pitaya flower for those who do not know grows on the Dragon Fruit cactus. Yes, this flower grows on the same thing that produces the dragon fruit that so many seem to tout.
This specific flower for those who do not know is quite mind-blowing because instead of blooming each day, it blooms at night, and rather than blooming every night, it only blooms one evening and that’s it each go around. This specific plant typically according to Gardening Know How blooms sometime between early summer and mid-autumn. That meaning, you have a lot of chances to see it but also might miss it if you’re not keeping a check on things.
These flowers are something tons of people want to see in person because of how truly beautiful they are. They almost seem to glow in the dark and are truly a sight to be seen. According to Home Guides once you see these flowers the formation of fruit will come soon after. This meaning it’s more important than most might understand at first.
The San Diego Zoo wrote as follows on their website about these spectacular flowers:
Hylocereus flowers at night, with large blooms arising from stem margins, along the edges of ribs. A flower lasts less than 24 hours; in fact, most close and wilt before dawn, relying on nocturnal pollinators such as bats and moths. Only a pollinated flower yields a dragon fruit, a fleshy berry with leathery, scaled skin. The dragon fruit most commonly seen in US grocery stores, H. undatus, has a reddish exterior and white pulp dotted with a multitude of tiny seeds. Most other dragon fruits follow suit, but some differ; for example, H. costaricensis has red pulp and H. lemairei has purple skin. Large dragon fruits can weigh almost 2 pounds (900 grams), but most are less than a pound (450 grams).
Now, there are a few different variants of this kind of plant and all of them are somewhat hard to keep going, and getting them to bloom is no easy task. That having been said, as you will see in the video below when they do bloom and then later produce fruit, it’s a truly marvelous experience. While I doubt I will ever get to see this kind of thing in person, it’s still mind-blowing in video form. These flowers do not last long but they leave an impression on us that is worth the wait.