Papaya is a fruit of the plant carica papaya from the family of carica.
It is native of tropics of Americas and varieties can be seen throughout
the America.
Papaya is an evergreen fast growing shrub but a short lived plant in its
best environment.
The fast growing tree can reach upto 25 feet with a straight trunk. The
leaves are dark green and glabrous to 2 feet across that are deeply
palmately 7 lobed with lobes pinnately lobed.
Flowers are aromatic drooping axillary panicles to 80cm long with a
5-toothed green calyx and 5-toothed to yellow corolla with 10 stamens.
The fruit is big yellow- green coloured, oblong of about 7.5 cm long,
2.5-5 cm thick sweet, juicy and contains numerous pepper like seeds.
Basically it is cultivated in tropical areas and throughout the Americas
but today found in other parts of world like Brazil, India, South Africa,
Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
The temperature required by papaya range from warm temperate dry to moist
through tropical very dry to wet forest life zones.
It requires annual precipitation of 6.4 to 42.9 dm with an annual
temperature of 16.2 to 26.6° C and pH of 4.3 to 8.0.
It should be protected from frost being a tropical plant, frost may kill
this plant.
Fruit, seeds, leaves and bark are used.
Papaya's contains carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamin A, beta-carotene,
thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin C, iron, magnesium,
phosphorus, potassium and sodium.
