11 of The Best Dragon Fruit (Pitaya) Cultivars

Dragon fruit, also known as pitayas, are available in different sizes, shapes, skin colors, flesh colors, and flavor profiles. And these cultivars have different sun, heat, and cold tolerances.

So, when you grow them at home, you’ll want to choose the best one for your growing conditions – and your taste buds!

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Whether you want to grow small, sweet, yellow fruits, big and tangy red-fleshed ones, or something in between, you have plenty of pitaya varieties to choose from.

In this article we’re going to learn about 11 of the best dragon fruit varieties – some of which have flavor profiles and pulp colors that might surprise you!

Here’s a peek at our pitaya list:

Before we dig into the details on these varieties, you might want to review the growing requirements for this fantastic tropical delicacy with our complete guide to growing dragon fruit.

Our first pitaya selection, ‘American Beauty’ is a cultivar of Selenicereus guatemalensis, a jungle cactus species from Guatemala.

The fruit of this variety has red skin with green bracts. This thin skin encloses startlingly bright, magenta-colored flesh.

With its soft, juicy pulp, ‘American Beauty’ is a top-ranking pitaya cultivar that has excellent flavor.

And when this variety had its sugar content measured on the Brix scale – a method of determining sugar percentage by weight – it scored 18.51, which means its flesh is definitely sweet.

The fruits of ‘American Beauty’ are round and weigh half a pound to one pound each.

This self-fertile dragon fruit variety is harvested from