番木瓜属 fan mu gua shu

Papaya Miller.

Trees small, or shrubs. Leaves subpeltate; leaf blade palmatifid, rarely entire. Flowers unisexual or bisexual. Male flowers: corolla lobes oblong or linear, valvate or contorted; stamens 10, filaments short; sterile ovary subulate. Female flowers: corolla lobes linear-oblong; stamens absent; ovary estipitate, 1-loculed; ovules several to numerous, placentation parietal; stigmas 5, inflated or linear. Fruit large, succulent. Seeds numerous, ovoid or slightly compressed, arillate; embryo compressed; cotyledons long elliptic.

One species: of cultivated origin in Central America, unknown in the wild; widely introduced and cultivated in tropical areas of the world, including China.

Lower Taxon

• Carica papaya Linnaeus