Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1884 — The Pitahaya. [ARTICLE]

The Pitahaya.

This queerly shaped plant, found in our Southwestern territory, where, amid dreary wastes, it rears its tall, pillar-like stalks, is the very king of the cactus family. It is found especially in the rocky valleys and slopes of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It was first mentioned by those early missionaries who, reaching the Gila, described so many strange things that they lost all credit. But it is, as they related, a useful plant, bearing a nutritious fruit, as the hunters of a later day found. Its name in various Indian dialects differs, pitahaya, sahuaro, being the more widespread. For its first few years it is globular, and is found under the shelter of the green-barked acacia. Then it shoots up, and at the height of ten or twelve feet blossoms, but its stalk sometimes rises to five times that height. It has few branches, and. few of these have any blossoms. The oval or pear-shaped fruit are clustered together, and, when ripe, fall to the ground. They are green, reddish above, and the pulp is crimson, and not unlike a fresh fig in taste. It ripens in July and August.