Dragon Fruit ( Hylocereus undatus ) Pollination in New Zealand: A Preliminary Report on Flower Visitors, Natural Pollen Deposition, and Artificial Pollination

Dragon fruit (pitaya; Hylocereus undatus ) is a promising, new high‐value crop in New Zealand. The large nocturnal flowers open for one night and close early in the morning the following day over a 3‐ to 6‐month long flowering period. In dragon fruit's native range, hawkmoths and bats are key nocturnal pollinators, and honey bees visit flowers during the day, but manual pollination is often required to achieve commercial yields. We assessed floral visitation, natural pollen deposition, and stigma receptivity for a self‐incompatible dragon fruit variety. We also explored different pollen collection, processing, and storage techniques. A range of insects visited flowers during the day and night, and we recorded copious amounts of pollen on the stigma, but little pollen germination was observed; the reason for the lack of pollen germination is unclear. Stigma receptivity was highest at flower opening and gradually declined over time. Pollen could be efficiently collected with a commercially available, handheld keyboard vacuum. Pollen collected within 12 h of anthesis had the highest viability, and desiccating pollen for 30 min over silica gel or 12 h in a drying cabinet had no apparent negative effects on pollen viability, but longer desiccation periods did. Desiccated pollen stored at −20°C for 10 months had pollen viability similar to that of freshly collected pollen. Our results suggest that manual pollination of dragon fruit is required in New Zealand to overcome pollen deficits, particularly in self‐incompatible varieties, and we outline methods to collect, process and store pollen to maintain viability to enable this.