Abstract
Vine cacti are night-blooming epiphytes plants, endemic to the Americas, and belong to Cactaceae, subfamily Cactoideae, tribe Hylocereeae (Br. and R.) Buxbaum (Barthlott & Hunt, 1993). According to the New Cactus Lexicon (Hunt, 2006), the genera Hylocereus (Berger) Br. and R., comprises 14 species, and they are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas from Mexico to North Argentina (Mizrahi & Nerd, 1999; Merten, 2003). They inhabit a wide range of ecosystems, including coastal areas, high mountains and tropical rainforests (Ortiz, 1999). These species, known as pitahaya or Dragon fruit, are currently being marketed worldwide and have a high economic potential as exotic fruit crops in arid regions where water is scarce, since they use a Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway and are exceptionally drought-tolerant (Raveh et al., 1998; Mizrahi & Nerd, 1999; Nobel & de la Barrera, 2004).
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Meiosis - Molecular Mechanisms and Cytogenetic Diversity |
| Editors | Andrew Swan |
| Publisher | InTech |
| Chapter | 20 |
| Pages | 367-388 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-953-51-0118-5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 29 Feb 2012 |