| Your Home Page | Contact Us |

• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Growth
• Similar Species
• Bibliography
• More Info
• Notes
• Keep Exploring

Taxonomy

Physical Description

Family Caricaceae:

Trees small, palmlike, or shrubs, rarely vines, often prickly, monoecious, dioecious, andromonoecious, gynomonoecious, or polygamomonoecious. Stem stout, unbranched, rarely branched, with a terminal cluster of leaves, with flowing, latexlike exudate. Leaves alternate, long petiolate, usually estipulate, large; stipules when present, spiny; leaf blade palmate or palmatifid, rarely entire or pinnatifid. Inflorescences axillary; male flowers aggregated in cymose panicles; female flowers usually solitary or aggregated in corymbose cymes, large. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes small, connate basally. Corolla 5-lobed; tube long in male flowers, short in female flowers. Stamens 5 or 10, 1- or 2-whorled, inserted in throat of corolla tube; filaments free, connate basally; anthers introrse, tetrasporangiate, dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Gynoecium in male flowers vestigial, or absent; in female flowers syncarpous, synovarious to synstylovarious; ovary superior, 1- or 5-loculed, placentation when 1-loculed parietal (placentas ± deeply intruded) or laminar-dispersed, when 5-loculed axile; ovules numerous, anatropous, bitegmic; styles 1 or 5, free to partly joined, apical; stigmas 5, papillate, dry. Fruit large, fleshy, indehiscent berry. Seeds numerous, surrounded by mucilage; endosperm oily; embryo well differentiated; cotyledons 2, broad, flat. n = 9.

Six genera and 34 species: Central and South America, one genus of two species (Cylicomorpha Urban) in tropical Africa, one genus (Carica) widely introduced and cultivated in tropical areas of the world, including China.^[1]

Genus Carica:

Trees small, or shrubs. Leaves subpeltate; leaf blade palmatifid, rarely entire. Flowers unisexual or bisexual. Male flowers: corolla lobes oblong or linear, valvate or contorted; stamens 10, filaments short; sterile ovary subulate. Female flowers: corolla lobes linear-oblong; stamens absent; ovary estipitate, 1-loculed; ovules several to numerous, placentation parietal; stigmas 5, inflated or linear. Fruit large, succulent. Seeds numerous, ovoid or slightly compressed, arillate; embryo compressed; cotyledons long elliptic.

One species: of cultivated origin in Central America, unknown in the wild; widely introduced and cultivated in tropical areas of the world, including China.^[2]

Flowers: Bloom Period: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. • Flower Color: near white, white

Distribution

Growth

Culture: Space 8-10' apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Carica:

There are approximately 101 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: C. microcarpa australis · C. microcarpa pilifera · C. heilborni · C. heilbornii · C. acuta · C. aprica · C. augusti · C. baccata · C. boliviana · C. bourgeaei · C. bourgeaui · C. candicans · C. caudata · C. cauliflora · C. cestriflora · C. chilensis · C. chiriquensis · C. chrysopetala · C. citriformis · C. cnidoscoloides · C. crassipetala · C. cubensis · C. cucurbitifolia · C. cundinamarcensis · C. digitata · C. dodecaphylla · C. dolicaula · C. dolichaula · C. eksotik · C. erythrocarpa · C. fiebrigii · C. fructifragrans · C. glandulosa · C. goudotiana · C. gracilis · C. hastata · C. heilbornii · C. hermaphrodita · C. heterophylla · C. horovitziana · C. hybrid · C. jamaicensis · C. jimenezii · C. lanceolata · C. leptantha · C. longiflora · C. mamaya · C. manihot · C. mexicana · C. microcarpa · C. monoica (Carica) · C. monsica · C. nana · C. omnilingua (Col De Monte) · C. palandensis (Papaillo) · C. paniculata · C. papaya (Papaya) · C. papaya 'Co-1' · C. papaya 'Coorg Honey Dew' · C. papaya 'Formosa' (Papaya) · C. papaya 'Know-You No 1' · C. papaya 'Ranchi' · C. papaya 'Simla' · C. papaya 'Solo' · C. papaya 'Sunrise' · C. papaya 'Tainung No 1' · C. papaya 'Tainung No 2' · C. papaya'Tropical Dwarf Papaya' (Tropical Dwarf Papaya) · C. papaya 'Venezuelan' · C. papaya 'Vista Solo' · C. papaya 'Washington' · C. papaya 'X-77' · C. papaya f. ernstii · C. papaya f. mamaya · C. papaya L. 'altes Cultivar' · C. papaya L. 'Pasar Usang' · C. papaya L. var. exotica · C. papaya var. jimenezii · C. papaya var. Tropical Dwarf Papaya (Papaya) · C. parviflora · C. peltata · C. pennata · C. pentagona · C. pinnatifida · C. platanifolia · C. posopora · C. pubescens (Mountain Papaya) · C. pulchra (Col De Monte) · C. pyriformis · C. quercifolia (Oak-Leaved Papaya) · C. quinqueloba · C. rochefortii · C. sphaerocarpa · C. spinosa · C. sppapaya · C. sprucei · C. stipulata · C. triplisecta · C. weberbaueri · C. × heilbornii

Members of the genus Vitis:

There are approximately 1,302 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: V. flexuosa rufo-tomentosa · V. heyneana ficifolia · V. vulpina riparia · V. andersonii · V. slavinii · V. 'Abundante' · V. 'Alden' · V. 'Alegrillo Negro' · V. 'Amandin' · V. 'Aris' · V. 'Atlantis' · V. 'Attiki' · V. 'Aurore' Seibel 5279 · V. 'Baco Noir' (Grape) · V. 'Bianca' · V. 'Black Strawberry' · V. 'Boskoop Glory' · V. 'Brant' · V. 'Brilliant' · V. 'Buffalo' · V. 'Canadice' (Seedless Grape) · V. 'Cascade' · V. 'Cayuga' · V. 'Chambourcin' · V. 'Concord Seedless' (Grape) · V. 'Cumdeo Blanc' · V. 'Cumdeo Rouge' · V. 'Dalkauer' · V. 'Diamond' · V. 'Dutch Black' · V. 'Edwards No 1' · V. 'Eger Csillaga' · V. 'Einset' (Grape) · V. 'Espiran' · V. 'Fiorenza' · V. 'Flame Seedless' (Grape) · V. 'Foch' (Grape) · V. 'Fragola' · V. 'Fragola' sport · V. 'Gagarin Blue' · V. 'Gemma' · V. 'Glenora' · V. 'Hecker' · V. 'Helena' · V. 'Himrod' (Seedless Grape) · V. 'Horizon' · V. 'Interlaken' · V. 'Isabella' · V. 'Jakob Gerhardt Blanc' · V. 'Kempsey Black' · V. 'Kozmapalme Muscatoly' · V. 'Kuibishevski' · V. 'Lara' · V. 'Léon Millot' · V. 'Maréchal Foch' · V. 'Maréchal Joffre' · V. 'Marquis' · V. 'Mars Seedless' (Grape) · V. 'Mars' · V. 'Muscat Bleu' · V. 'Nero' · V. 'New York Muscat' · V. 'New York Seedless' · V. 'Niagara' · V. 'Okanogan Reisling' (Grape) · V. 'Orion' · V. 'Paletina' · V. 'Paula' · V. 'Perdin' · V. 'Phönix' · V. 'Pink Strawberry' · V. 'Pirovano 14' · V. 'Plantet' · V. 'Poloske Muscat' · V. 'Pulchra' · V. 'Ramdas' · V. 'Rathay' · V. 'Rayon d'Or' · V. 'Regent' · V. 'Reliance Seedless' (Grape) · V. 'Reliance' · V. 'Remailly' · V. 'Rembrant' · V. 'Riederother Monschrebe' · V. 'Roesler' · V. 'Rondo' · V. 'Rubinet' · V. 'Rubinia' · V. 'Saturn' · V. 'Schuyler' · V. 'Seneca' · V. 'Serena' · V. 'Seyval Blanc' · V. 'Skookum' · V. 'Sooke' · V. 'Suffolk Seedless' · V. 'Sugraone' · V. 'Tereshkova' · V. 'Thornton' · V. 'Triomphe d'Alsace'

Bibliography

• Chen Peishan. 1999. Caricaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 121-122.

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CA L | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
• Translate this page using Google: Arabic | Chinese | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Japanese | Korean | Português

Notes

Contributors:

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed March 28, 2007.

Identifiers:

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 965535

Footnotes:

1. Yinzheng Wang & Nicholas J. Turland "Caricaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 150. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. "Carica". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 150. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.