Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Carica papaya - Pawpaw
Edible Portion: Fruit, Flowers, Leaves, Vegetable, Seeds - spice
Pawpaw is one of the very well known fruits of the tropics. The straight soft stemmed plant grows up to 3-5 metres tall and only occasionally has branches. The stem is softly woody and has scars from fallen leaves along it. At the top of the plant there are a clump of leaves. The leaves are large (50 cm wide) deeply lobed and on long leaf stalks. The leaf stalks are 90 cm long. There is a crown of leaves at the top of the trunk. Trees can be male, female or bisexual. The male flowers are small and white and on long stalks. Female and bisexual flowers are on short stalks. These have no fruit, round fruit and long fruit respectively. There are three forms of long fruit. The seeds are black.