Mountain papaya
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| Mountain papaya | ||||||||||||||
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| Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis V.M.Badillo |
The Mountain Papaya (Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis, syn. Carica pubescens; also known as mountain paw paw), is a species of the genus Vasconcellea, native to the Andes of northwestern South America from Colombia south to central Chile, typically growing at altitudes of 1,500-3,000 m. It is an evergreen pachycaul shrub or small tree growing to 10 m tall.
The fruit is 6-15 cm long and 3-8 cm broad, with five broad longitudinal ribs from base to apex; it is green, maturing yellow to orange. The fruit pulp is edible, similar to Papaya, and is usually cooked as a vegetable, but is also eaten raw; like Papaya, it is rich in the digestive enzyme papain.
It is one of the parents of the hybrid cultivar 'Babaco', widely grown for fruit production in South America.
[edit] References
- Germplasm Resources Information Network: Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis
- University of Ghent: Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis
- Tradewinds Fruit Database
[edit] External links
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