Carica papaya
COMMON NAME | Papaya |
TYPE | Tree |
FAMILY | Caricaceae |
NOTES | The papaya is a
small, sparsely branched tree, usually with a single stem growing from 16 to
33 ft tall, with spirally arranged leaves confined to the top of the trunk.
The lower trunk is conspicuously scarred where leaves and fruit were borne.
The leaves are large, 20–28 in in diameter, deeply palmately lobed, with
seven lobes. All parts of the plant contain latex in articulated
laticifers. Papaya's are either Male
or Female and both bare sweet-scented flowers that open at night and are
moth-pollinated. Female flowers give way
to smooth-skinned green fruits that ripen to yellow-orange with a yellow to
pinkish-orange flesh and central cavity of pea-sized black seeds. Fruits and
seeds are edible. |
GEOGRAPHIC REGION | Southern Mexico and neighboring
Central America |
NATIVE HABITAT | Wild populations grow
in open sites of deciduous tropical forests or tropical rain forests in well
drained, deep soils |
WEB SOURCES |
