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Sandra Lawrence
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Pitahayas - Jewels of the Baja Bush
Article Posted: Sunday January 16th
Article last updated on: Sunday January 16th
Alastair Bland
January 2005 Pitahayas - Jewels of the Baja Bush For the better part of the year the Baja California peninsula is a dry and barren place. It's a world scorched by the sun and watered by little rain. Grass doesn't grow here, and the most verdant plants around are the dusty-green cacti. In short, the place is a desert. In late August, however, an amazing thing happens. Millions of fiery red globes about the size of a tomato appear. They decorate the land in all directions, as far as the eye can see - they're everywhere. To the uninformed gringo who steps off the bus at the side of the highway on a warm morning in September, it will seem a miracle. But this is just business as usual for Baja in the fall, for this is the season of the pitahaya fruit.
Stenocereus gummosus is the plant that generates this annual bounty of fruit. It is a cactus, and is composed of a dozen or so spindly arms about eight feet long and covered with half-inch spines. These slender limbs reach into the air, twisted and malformed and sprawled over the ground, and in some places the arms interlock with those of neighboring plants to create a barrier impenetrable to the foot traveler. This cactus, in fact, is a general nuisance, like a big weed - until autumn comes. Then - and for the next four months - Stenocereus gummosus is the most wonderful thing under the searing desert sun. The pitahaya fruit, when fully ripe, can be anywhere from the size of a golf ball to that of a softball. The flavor has all the essences of cherries, kiwis, and watermelons and it's odd that the Mexican name -
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