Papaya ( Carica papaya )


Green, orange, or yellow fruit, often quite large and weighing several pounds. Fruits tend to be very fleshy, with an inside cavity containing numerous seeds. Flesh is sweet, sometimes mildly acidic, with a texture much like that of a melon.

Description: Very fast growing, perennial herb. While papaya's look much like a tree, they are not, and do not develop bark characteristic of trees. The plants typically grow 10-20ft tall, but may bear when only a few feet high. Most papaya's bear male and female flowers on separate trees. There is no way of telling the sex until flowering. Some varieties are bisexual.

Hardiness: They are easily killed by freezing and even frosty temperatures, although they are subtropical, and can be kept as a container plant and in many cases, grown as an annual.



Growing Environment: Trees are not salt tolerant, and while they enjoy lots of irrigation, they are not flooding tolerant. They do well in full sun.

Propagation: By seeds.


Uses: Generally eaten raw, but also used in juices, chutneys, and various desserts. 


Native Range: Native to tropical America. Grown worldwide in tropical and subtropical areas as a commercial crop. Papaya's spread easily and have become naturalized in many areas.



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