Different Sexes of Papaya Trees

Also refer my blips for 2, 18 as well as 22 December 2008.

The papaya is a short lived tree. It grows into a giant in no time, but lacks a permanent woody stem. It bears fruit within a year of planting. The leaves are huge and palm shaped.

What I actually tried to illustrate today, is the fact that the male and female flowers grow on different trees and you should have trees of both sexes in order to make the female fruitful.

I blipped the male flowers previously, from our two new little trees, which grew to a height of more than 3mt within this first year, but now the female started blooming as well, there are even a few tiny fruits already.

The flowers are a rich cream colour and smells divine, especially the male flowers, which grow in firm clusters of small perfumed blossoms, see the long relaxed stem with a spray of small flowers on it, which I picked off the male tree, and arranged on a leaf of the female tree, to demonstrate the difference to you.

The female flowers are larger in size and grow separately and close against the main stem, as seen in the picture, the top flowers, and below the two back flowers you can even see a tiny little papaya against the stem.