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'''== Origin and geographical distribution''' == The genus ''Carica'' L. is indigenous to tropical America and the papaya must have originated from natural hybridization involving ''C. peltata'' Hook. & Arn. From tropical America it was brought to the Caribbean and South-East Asia during the Spanish exploration in the 16th Century. It then spread rapidly to India, Oceania, Africa, and today it is widely distributed throughout the tropical and warmer subtropical areas of the world.

*A fast-growing tree-like herb, 2-10 m tall, usually unbranched, sometimes branched due to injury, containing white latex in all parts. Stem cylindrical, 10-30 cm in diameter, hollow, with prominent leaf scars and spongy-fibrous tissue. *Leaves spirally arranged, clustered near apex of trunk; petiole up to 1 m long, hollow, greenish or purplish-green; lamina orbicular, 25-75 cm in diameter, palmately and deeply 7-11-lobed, glabrous, prominently veined, lobes deeply and broadly toothed. *Flowers male, female or hermaphrodite, axillary, found on separate trees. *Male flowers in panicles, 25-100 cm long, pendent, sessile; calyx cup-shaped, small, 5-toothed; corolla trumpet-shaped, 2.5 cm long, with 5 spreading lobes, light yellow; stamens 10, in 2 whorls alternating with the petal lobes. *Female flowers solitary or in few-flowered cymes, 3.5-5 cm long; calyx cup-shaped, 3-4 mm long, with 5 narrow teeth, yellow-green; corolla of 5 almost free petals; petals lanceolate, twisted, fleshy, yellow; ovary ovoid-oblong, 2-3 cm long, with central cavity and numerous ovules; stigmas 5, fan-shaped, sessile, deeply 5-cleft. *Hermaphrodite flowers of 2 types: "elongata" type with flowers in short-peduncled clusters, partially united petals, stamens 10 in 2 series, ovary elongate; "pentandria" type, flowers similar to female flowers but with 5 stamens. *Intermediate flowers occur as well, in which stamens become carpelloid producing irregular fruits. Proportion and type of flowers produced may vary on same tree, depending on age and environmental conditions. *Fruit a fleshy berry, ovoid-oblong to nearly spherical, or pyriform, cylindrical or grooved, 7-30 cm long, weighing up to 10 kg; skin thin, smooth, yellowish or orange in ripe fruit; flesh yellowish to red-orange, edible, sweet with mild and pleasant flavour; central cavity 5-angled. *Seeds globose, 5 mm in diameter, black or greyish, numerous, attached in 5 rows to interior wall of ovary, enclosed in a gelatinous sarcotesta.

*female × male -> →→→➞ 1 female : 1 male;