Traditional fruit diversity

In the Tehuacán Valley, S. pruinosus is managed in forests, agroforestry systems and homegardens. A study involving 83 households and 37 morphological characters across nine populations recorded 15 traditionally named pitaya forms. Local people distinguished them by flesh colour, fruit size and shape, flavour, and spines on the peel. Sweetness was a selection criterion in 71% of interviewed households and flesh colour in 46%. These local use categories describe the diversity of harvested fruit [Parra et al. 2012].

Forms of population management

In forests, residents collect fruit from spontaneously occurring plants. In agroforestry systems, they retain and care for selected cacti while using the surrounding land, whereas in homegardens they propagate and plant valued forms. Comparisons across nine populations revealed morphological differences between wild and homegarden plants, particularly in reproductive characters. Plants managed within agroforestry systems were intermediate between these groups in several respects [Parra et al. 2012].

Stem exchange and connections among populations

Selection favours plants whose fruit is valued by local users. Homegardens in the study more frequently contained forms with larger fruit and a greater proportion of pulp. Residents moved stems between forests, fields and gardens and exchanged them among villages. The authors interpreted this movement, together with pollination and animal seed dispersal, as helping explain how strong selection can coexist with substantial diversity and relatively limited phenotypic differentiation among populations [Parra et al. 2012].

Materials from the author's archive

The species also appears in Konrad Szychowski's private material archive [Kaktusy i Inne 2005a].

Synonyms and names in the literature

Cactus pruinosus · Cereus laevigatus · Cereus pruinosus · Cereus roridus · Cereus schumannii · Echinocactus pruinosus · Griseocactus pruinosus · Griseocereus pruinosus · Lemaireocereus laevigatus · Lemaireocereus pruinosus · Lemaireocereus schumannii · Neogriseocereus pruinosus · Pachycereus schumannii · Rathbunia laevigata · Rathbunia laevigata var. schumannii · Rathbunia pruinosa · Ritterocereus laevigatus · Ritterocereus pruinosus · Stenocereus laevigatus · Stenocereus laevigatus var. schumannii [2-WWW]