Sin Espinas

Sin Espinas — Spanish for 'without thorns' — is a Nicaraguan cultivar and the only thornless type among the five grown commercially in that country. It was included in UC Cooperative Extension's San Diego variety trial as Hylocereus sp., its precise parentage unrecorded. The near-total absence of spines is the whole point of the variety: pruning, tying in and harvesting are all done bare-handed, which matters enormously on a crop where every other cultivar draws blood. Fruit is around a pound with deep red flesh and a firm, tart character quite unlike the sweeter purple hybrids. Sources disagree on its pollination requirement, so treat cross-pollination as the safe assumption.