Are There Red Dragon Fruit Flowers?

Yes, there are red dragon fruit flowers. Some varieties of dragon fruit have reddish, pink & purple shades. They are just as beautiful as the white flowers. Have a look at the beauty right below here:

>> Link YouTube:

Her name is Connie Mayer. In comparison, the red flower petals are a bit thinner than the white flowers. The stigma forms an umbrella shape surrounded by the anthers.

The fruits of the red-flowered Connie Mayer in particular has a very sweet fragrance. When eaten fresh, it tastes a bit like coconut. A very refreshing tropical taste actually.

You can find some other species with red flowers like below:

• Asunta
• Bruni
• Connie Mayer
• Kathie van Arum
• Eckhard Meier's creation

Indeed, Bruni, Connie Mayer & Kathie van Arum are the three sister varieties created by the talented German hybridizer Eckhard Meier.

Some of these varieties are still under continuous development. The Asunta, for example, has been through versions 1, 2, 3 & so on.

From growers sharing their experience, it took them over 15 years to continue improving this beautiful variety with good-tasting fruits. The breeders actually grow these from seeds & wait up to 5 years to get the first taste of the fruits. It's truly remarkable.

In this video, Edgar Valdivia is introducing the Asunta 4:

>> Link YouTube:

Below is a close-up of the Asunta 4, a red-flowered dragon fruit variety, takes us into another mesmerizing dimension. Oh my, please excuse me here but it's just too beautiful to describe with words:

>> Link YouTube:

Most of these red-flowered species are hybrid crosses. Kathie van Arum, for example, is a hybrid between Hylocereus stenopterus x Hylocereus undatus. They have some of these varieties on their website at http://mattslandscape.com/hylocereus/ (Website no longer available :( unfortunately)

Anyway, enjoying the beauty on the balcony:

The thing is most red dragon fruit flowers are not self-fertile though. So, hand pollination is needed. People are however trying to improve this characteristic, making the species self-fertile.

This way, growers with dozens or hundreds of plants don't have to go one by one to pollinate each one. Hand pollination is a fun process. It may be time consuming & impractical in some cases.

See a grower hand pollinates Connie Mayer here:

>> Link YouTube:

Enjoying the Red-Flowered Varieties

So there you have it folks, the answer is yes red dragon fruit flowers do exist besides the commonly known white ones. In the early days, no one really knew that dragon fruits would produce red flowers. All we saw at that time was the white ones.

It was only until the efforts of hybridizing different species that growers got this interesting response back from nature. And who knows, maybe there are some more colors hiding unexposed in their gene composition, waiting to be explored & unleashed someday by someone. It has been fun & have a great time growing your dragons.

Thanks to:

• kim phan
• edpitahaya
• Grafting Dragon Fruit

Responses to Readers' Questions

We had clipping from a white flower plant that created purple flower when mature. The problem is theres not enough pollen in the flower to hand pollinate so I think it might be sterile. What do you think?

>> Hi, that's very interesting. And beautiful flower too! I think it could be the variety's health. As one reader suggested, you can use the sterile branch for grafting: https://zenyrgarden.com/how-to-graft-dragon-fruits/

Thank you for asking.

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