Flowering Behavior and Pollination Requirements in Climbing Cacti with Fruit Crop Potential

Abstract

The reproductive biology of the climbing cacti Hylocereus polyrhizus (Weber) Britt. & Rose, H. undatus (Haworth) Britt. & Rose, H. costaricensis (Weber) Britt. & Rose, and Selenicereus megalanthus (Schum. ex Vaupel) Moran (syn. Mediocactus megalanthus) was studied with the aim of cultivating the cacti in Israel as fruit crops. Flowering in Hylocereus spp. occurred in two to three waves during the summer, whereas in S. megalanthus, flowering was concentrated at the end of autumn. Flowers of all species opened 1 to 1.5 hours before sunset and closed ≈6 hours after sunrise. In the Hylocereus spp., H. polyrhizus and H. costaricensis were self-unfruitful, and cross-pollination with other species led to high fruit set (100%). Hylocereus undatus was self-fruitful, setting fruit with self-pollen. Cross-pollination between the clones of S. megalanthus led to a high fruit set and each clone was self-fruitful. In contrast to H. undatus, S. megalanthus clones could set fruit without pollen vector involvement, although the set was slightly lower than with hand pollination. Pollen source influenced fruit weight. In the self-fruitful species of Hylocereus, fruit obtained by hand cross-pollination with other Hylocereus spp. were significantly heavier than fruit obtained by hand self-pollination. The largest fruit in each of the Hylocereus spp. were obtained by specific cross-combinations within the group. Fruit of S. megalanthus had a lower weight than fruit of the Hylocereus spp. Flowers of all species were visited by day-active honeybees only. Fruit set and fruit weight with open pollination was lower than with hand pollination in Hylocereus spp. Since stigma receptivity and pollen germinability stayed high during anthesis, the low pollination effectivity has to be related to other factors, such as the short bee visits and the absence of specific adaptation by the bees to the flower. In S. megalanthus, fruit set and fruit weight with open pollination were similar to values obtained with hand pollination. This similarity is probably related to the fact that pollen transfer in open pollination is achieved by bee visits and direct transfer of pollen to the stigma, which occurs via physical contact between anthers and stigma during flower closing.