Plant · P-035

Papaya

Carica papaya

Papaya grows more like a giant herb than a tree: a single hollow, non-woody stem topped with huge palm-shaped leaves and clusters of fruit at the crown. It can bear fruit within six months and keeps producing year-round, but yields peak in the second and third year and the whole plant is usually finished and replaced within four years. A hard freeze kills it outright, since there is no root or stump left behind to resprout from, so where winters bring frost it is often grown instead as a one-season annual. The milky latex of the unripe fruit is the source of papain, a meat-tenderizing enzyme also used on wounds, in beer-clarifying and in old soap recipes.