Carica Papaya - Large Tree-like Plant Up To 10 Meters Tall, Ripe Amber To Orange Fruit - Transgenic Genome Deciphered, Dioecious With Large Palmately Lobed Leaves

Carica papaya

.The papaya is a large, tree-like plant, with a single stem growing from 5 to 10 mt tall, with spirally arranged leaves confined to the top of the trunk. The lower trunk is conspicuously scarred where leaves and fruit were borne. The leaves are large, 50a 70 cm (20a 28 in) in diameter, deeply palmately lobed, with seven lobes. Unusually for such large plants, the trees are dioecious. The tree is usually unbranched, unless lopped. The flowers are similar in shape to the flowers of the Plumeria, but are much smaller and wax-like. They appear on the axils of the leaves, maturing into large fruit - 15a 45 cm long and 10a 30 cm in diameter. The fruit is a type of berry. It is ripe when it feels soft (as soft as a ripe avocado or a bit softer) and its skin has attained an amber to orange hue.

Carica papaya was the first transgenic fruit tree to have its genome deciphered.