Ethnobotany, Productivity, and Ecophysiology of Pitaya (Stenocereus queretaroensis)

Pitaya (Stenocereus queretaroensis) is a columnar cactus that produces attractively colored ediblefruits in both wild and cultivated populations in the subtropical semiarid lands of Mexico.Pitaya is a relatively recently domesticated fruit, which during the last 10 years has emerged asa fruit crop whose cultivation is feasible using relatively low inputs of anthropogenic energy orwater and whose fruits ripen during the spring season, before summer when the local marketsare flooded with other fresh summer fruits. These agronomic traits have increased theeconomic viability of small farms in semiarid subtropical lands of Mexico.