Brenda Russell, age 13, of Brownsville, Texas, for her question:
HOW DOES A PAPAYA GROW?
Papaya is the name of a fruit that is grown in tropical countries. It is most often eaten raw as a breakfast fruit. It grows on a giant plant which looks like a small palm tree.
Papaya is an important food in the diet of people from the tropical counties of the world. In addition to serving as a breakfast food, it is also eaten raw in salads and cooked in pies.
Because the papaya grows easily and quickly from seed, it has spread since the early days from its original home in Central America to most of the world's hot countries.
People in English speaking countries often call the fruit "papaw" or "pawpaw." This tends to confuse the papaya with a fruit called the pawpaw which is grown in. the southeastern United States.
In the Caribbean area, the fruit is called "fruta bomba.
The soft stemmed plant on which the papaya grows has a crown of palmately lobed leaves. The fruit is usually yellow and melonlike in texture. During recent years, the juice of the fruit has become a popular commercial item in markets of the U.S.
The juice of the papaya contains the enzyme papin, which is somewhat similar to pepsin, and digestant in action.
The papaya fruit is round to oblong in shape and may weigh as much as 12 pounds. It varies from yellow to dark orange in color.
The papaya cannot be shipped long distances because the large hollow cavity in its middle causes the fruit to break down easily when it is ripe.
Many black seeds that are about the size of peas are attached to the walls of the papaya's cavity. The fruit is mildly sweet, with a slightly musky tang.
The plant is normally dioecious. This means that the staminate, or male flowers are borne on one individual stem while the pistillate, or female flowers, are borne on another. But all sorts of combinations can be found. Some flowers have the reproductive organs of both sexes.
In addition to the papaya's value as a fruit, it is the source of the drug papain. This drug is used as a remedy for dyspepsia and similar ailments. Papain is also used as a tenderizer for tough meats before they are cooked.
Not to be confused with the papaya is the pawpaw, a small tree or shrub that is native to North America. This tree produces a fruit that looks somewhat like a thick, short banana. The plant is found in the southern U.S. and as far north as Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey and western New York.
The pawpaw grows from 10 to 40 feet high and bears fruit two to six inches long. The fruit has a greenish brown skin. The yellow pulp is soft and sweet, but does not have enough taste to make it popular as a table fruit.
The wood of the tree is too soft and coarse to be valuable. The thin fibrous bark, however, is sometimes used in making fish nets.