The Keng Hwa fruit with the umbilical-like dried flower stalk still attached
How interesting. After the recent round of flowering, one of our Keng Hwa plants developed those odd fruits again. This time, we noticed them before the flower dropped off, so you can see how the fruit forms at the base of the flower stalk. There were two, but one fell off, possibly knocked off by the rain. We’ll have to watch and see if this one develops as the last one did. As to what function it has, I still don’t know. It’s intriguing to observe, though…
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I hv a keng hwa plant and it produces a red fruit which looks like a mini dragon fruit. the inside is exactly like the dragon fruit (white variety). Since the flowers (dried) are edible, I thought, why not the fruit? I hv eaten them and some are sweet. Another cactus that I hv, the cereus peruvianus produces red, round fruits, and the inside also looks like the dragon fruit flesh. Took a chance, ate it and it was very sweet. I know I shd not be doing sthings like that but fortunately for me, no adverse effects and I think I’ll continue eating them :-)! If I knew how to post pictures, I wd.
Hi Miki,
You took a big risk eating that fruit! I know that some plants like the Mexican turnip are totally poisonous except for the tuberous root. I’m glad you didn’t suffer any side effects
I looked up the cereus peruvianus and it’s an interesting looking cactus. The flower buds and flowers are so similar to the keng hwa – I guess because they’re both from the cereus family. Do they have the same strong sweet scent that keng hwa flowers have?
Hi, CuriousG – The flowers from both the keng hwa and the cereus peruvianus are fragrant. In fact, the keng hwa mini fruits are extremely aromatic, much more so than the regular dragon fruit. I think I’m ok since I have been eating these for the past day or so. Wish they were more substantial, though. Mine plant is in a large pot. I’ll try to grow some in the ground and see if it will produce larger fruits. Happy yarding!
Hey Miki, do you do anything special to get your keng hwa plants to bear fruit? Ours just fruits when it wants to, and we’ve had only 2 fruit so far. I wonder if we can encourage it to do so more often.
U got me there. Nothing special, just water, at most once a week. When I’m on a 2-3 month long vacation, they get nothing, yet they survive. The plant is at a place in the yard where my husband will not go (allergies), so they get no water until I return. U may want to try some fish fertilizer (organic)monthly, as my other eidible plants seem to do a lot better with “fish”. Inedibles, I occasionally use Miracle Gro. While I love plants, I don’t really give them all that much attention. I’m happy as long as they are not dead or can be resurrected! Hv 3 varieties of dragon fruit, red, pink, & white. Young plants, so what they r going to do later on, I don’t know but believe can place them in the “cactus/keng hwa” cateogry. Later …..