Species: Hylocereus polyrhizus (syn. Selenicereus monacanthus)

Lisa dragon fruit is the best-documented variety in our library — a red-skinned, red-fleshed Hylocereus polyrhizus (syn. Selenicereus monacanthus) type originating in Nicaragua, with performance numbers straight from UC Cooperative Extension’s 2016 twenty-variety trial in San Diego County. If you want a first dragon fruit that’s backed by actual trial data rather than catalog promises, this is the one.

The numbers in the stats table below are worth reading closely. A Brix reading just over 17 puts Lisa firmly among the sweeter red-fleshed varieties — solidly dessert-grade eating. Average fruit around 465 grams means you’re harvesting one-pound-class fruit, not novelty golf balls. And roughly 44 days from flower to harvest is a quick turnaround, so a good bloom season converts to ripe fruit fast.

Growing Lisa

Lisa’s UCCE cold and heat tolerance ratings both sit near the top of the trial’s scale, which is trial-speak for adaptable: it handled San Diego County’s range of conditions well, and its market yield in the trial — north of thirteen kilograms of fruit per plant — marks it as a genuinely productive commercial performer, not just a collector’s plant. Give it the standard setup (sun, trellis, sharp drainage, frost protection) and it earns its keep.

Pollination is where Lisa really pays for itself. It’s self-fertile, so a single plant sets fruit alone — no partner, no midnight paintbrush required. Better still, our records note it as a widely used universal pollen donor for self-sterile varieties, so one Lisa quietly upgrades the fruit set of the fussier plants around it. If you’re growing Dark Star or Purple Haze, plant a Lisa next to them.

Lisa is available below as cuttings and rooted plants from Shulman Dragon Fruit Orchard, Wallace Ranch Dragon Fruit, and Oax Dragon Fruit Farm.