Papaya

Where it grows

Papaya was domesticated in southern Mexico and Central America. The Spanish carried it across the tropics during the 16th century, and it now grows from India and the Philippines to East Africa, Brazil, and Hawaii. It needs warm temperatures and tolerates only light frost.

How to recognise it

Papayas have a single, hollow, unbranched stem topped by a crown of huge, deeply lobed palmate leaves on long stalks. The yellow-cream tubular flowers cluster at the leaf bases. The pear-shaped fruit can weigh several kilograms and turns yellow to orange when ripe, with a central cavity holding hundreds of black peppery seeds.

Uses

Ripe fruit is eaten fresh, in fruit salads, or blended into juice. The unripe green fruit is shredded for Thai som tam salad and curried in Indian cooking. Papain — an enzyme extracted from the green fruit and latex — is a commercial meat tenderiser and ingredient in digestive supplements.

Cultivation

Papayas are short-lived and become commercially exhausted within three to five years, so plantations are continually replanted. Papaya ringspot virus has devastated production in many regions; Hawaii pioneered transgenic resistance.