Although papaya plants have a tree-like habit, they are botanically referred to neither as a shrub nor as a tree. The plant from the melon family (Caricaceae) probably originally comes from Mexico and forms the first flowers and fruits just one year after sowing.
Peculiarities of the papaya flower
With the different types of papaya, the papaya blossoms sometimes look quite different. They can also have different shades of cream colors, from bright white to yellow tones. The main species cultivated, Carica papaya, bears small flowers with a star-shaped petal arrangement, shaped like a spinning pinwheel. All papaya species have in common the arrangement of the flowers on the "stem" of the plant, in each case on the leaf scars of leaves that have already been dropped.
From papaya flowers to fruits
If you let bought papayas ripen sufficiently at home, you can grow your own from the seeds and later plant them individually in a pot. After about 10 to 14 months, these young plants can bear the first flowers and thus fruit. Due to the lack of winter hardiness in this country, the following types of cultivation are possible:
- as a houseplant indoors or in conservatories
- as a container plant on the balcony
- as a container plant on the terrace and in the garden
tips and tricks
There are both monoecious and dioecious papaya species. In the case of the monoecious species, self-pollination via wind and insects is also possible in some cases; in the case of dioecious specimens, a female and a male plant are required for fertilization.