Carica papaya L.

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

• Family

  Caricaceae

• Scientific Name

  Carica papaya L.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - Tree to 6 m tall, usually dioecious, unbranched (or with few branches at upper portion), producing abundant milky exudate; stem with numerous, large leaf scars; bark grayish and smooth. Leaf blades 20-35 cm diam., chartaceous to leathery, palmately lobed (7-11 lobes), with rounded outline, glabrous, lower surface lighter, with prominent palmate venation, the base cordate, the margins wavy; petioles 30-90 cm long, hollow. Flowers creamy-white to light yellow; calyx cup-shaped, 1-1.5 mm long; corolla long-tubular (2-4 cm ) , salverform, with reflexed, lanceolate lobes in male flowers, or nearly bell-shaped, with nearly free petals in female flowers; stamens 10, pilose, the outer ones with longer filaments; ovary ovoid, the style very short, the stigmas ca. 1 cm long, flattened. Fruit variously shaped, usually ellipsoid to rounded, 5-45 x 5-15 cm, turning from green to yellow, with yellow to light orange pulp. Seeds black, ca. 4-6 mm long, ellipsoid, wrinkled, with fleshy, translucent aril.

• Discussion

  Common name: papaya.