Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Papaya (
Carica papaya
L.) is a popular fruit native to tropical America. It
is usually grown for its small to large melon-like fruit. It is a herbaceous
perennial, bearing fruit continuously at the leaf axils spirally arranged along
the single erect trunk. The papaya is also called papaw, pawpaw, papayer
(French), melonenbaum (German), lechosa (Spanish), mamao, mamoeiro
(Portuguese), mugua (Chinese) and betik (Malaysian, Indonesian).
BOTANY
Taxonomy and nomenclature
The cultivated papaya belongs to the family
Caricaceae
and is the only member
of the genus
Carica
.
Caricaceae
is a small family of dicotyledonous plants
with six genera; four of tropical American origin (
Carica
,
Jarilla
,
Jacaratia
,
Vasconcella
) and one,
Cylicomorpha
, from equatorial Africa.
Caricaceae
species
have been variously classifi ed in families such as
Cucurbitaceae
,
Passifl oraceae
,
Bixaceae
and
Papayaceae
. Approximately 71 species have been described,
though Badillo (1993, 2000) reduced the number to 32 species, with the
following distribution:
Carica
, 1 species,
Cylicomorpha,
2 species,
Jacaratia
,
5 species,
Jarilla,
3 species,
Vasconcella
, 20 species, and
Horovitzia
, 1 species.
Papaya
(
C. papaya
L.)
is the most important economic species in
Caricaceae
.
Carica
and
Vasconcella
species are dioecious, except for the monoecious
Vasconcella monoica
(Desf.) and some
Vasconcella pubescens
and the polygamous
C. papaya
.
Most species are herbaceous, single-stemmed and erect. Other than
C. papaya
L., the other edible species are
Vasconcella candamarcensis
Hook. f.,
V. monoica
Desf.,
Vasconcella erythrocarpa
Heilborn,
Vasconcella goudotiana
Solms-
Laubach and
Vasconcella quercifolia
Benth. and Hook (Storey, 1969). These fruit
are mostly eaten cooked, being normally dry and lacking the juicy fl esh of
C.
papaya
.
Another edible species,
Vasconcella pentagona
, is called 'babaco'.
