292
Carica papaya L.
Synonym
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:
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Carica citriformis
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Family
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:
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Caricaceae
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Local name
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English - Pappaya
Malayalam - Karmoosa
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Flowering
and fruiting period
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Throughout the year
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Distribution
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Native of Tropical America; cultivated in the
tropics and
subtropics
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Distribution
in Kerala
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All Districts
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Habitat
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Cultivated in homesteads
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Uses
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Used as vegetable and fruit
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Key botanical characters:
Small herbaceous tree with white milky juice. Trunk with
scars of fallen leaves. Flower in clusters, sessile, calyx small 5-lobed, acute. Corolla tube 5-lobed, twisted in bud, lobes creamy yellow. Stamens 10,
in two whorls, outer whorl of the stamens shortly stalked, filaments papillose, inner most sessile, anthers 2-celled
dehiscing longitudinally, basifixed. In female plant 2-4 floral bud arise in
the leaf axil, one of which becomes a complete flower; other floral buds fall
off, sometimes one or two of them grow a little but never reach maturity, so
flower seems to be solitary axillary. Peduncle short. Calyx united 5-lobed, acute,
green and fleshy. Petals lanceolate, obtuse; stigma lobes
fimbriate. Fruit large spherical or pyriform,
turning yellow or orange with yellow or orange flesh. Seeds black, wrinkled,
each enclosed in gelatinous membrane, oval in shape.
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