Species
+

Carica papaya L.

Bobai, Gedang, Lechosa, Melon tree

Climate known 47 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The papaya is the plant species Carica papaya, one of the 3 accepted species in the genus Carica of the family Caricaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Papaya”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Carica

Carica is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caricaceae including the papaya, a widely cultivated fruit tree native to the American tropics.

Text from Wikipedia, “Carica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Caricaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +9
Wild records
537 in range· 232 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1713mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 261 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1713 mm a year, wettest September at 261 mm, driest March at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Carica citriformis J.Jacq. ex Spreng.; Carica citriformis Jacq.; Carica cubensis Solms; Carica hermaphrodita Blanco; Carica jamaicensis Urb. and 37 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1324 mm of 1713 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1713 mm a year, wettest September at 261 mm, driest March at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1713 mm a year at the habitat, 1324 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 261 mm, driest March at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1065 mm to 3345 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 17.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 17.1 °C, the absolute minimum 13.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.3 °C to 23.9 °C), warmest day 29.4 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Dec to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1713 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 422 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–39RH 61–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 422 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 22–3028 / 23–3129 / 25–3329 / 25–3429 / 25–3429 / 24–3228 / 24–3229 / 25–3228 / 24–3128 / 24–3027 / 23–3027 / 22–29
Night °C20 / 13–2420 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2523 / 16–2524 / 17–2523 / 16–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2522 / 16–2521 / 15–2420 / 14–24
Rain mm47 / 8–15038 / 7–13936 / 6–18362 / 15–276150 / 50–357231 / 126–380224 / 112–390235 / 131–390261 / 154–451223 / 101–413133 / 24–35873 / 12–224
DLI31 / 24–3534 / 29–3937 / 33–4339 / 31–4538 / 28–4435 / 27–3935 / 28–4035 / 28–4032 / 29–3730 / 27–3428 / 25–3328 / 23–32
RH %63 / 56–6861 / 56–6761 / 55–6761 / 55–6964 / 56–7066 / 61–7266 / 60–7266 / 61–7167 / 63–7267 / 62–7266 / 60–7164 / 58–70

Each figure is the median across the 422 grid cells holding the 526 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1428:1698 (18.575, -95.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 422 distinct grid cells holding the 526 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1428:1698 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-95.000, lapse-corrected +48 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 145 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia· introduced: Cape Verde, Benin, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Angola, Ascension, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique Channel Is., Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Oman, China Southeast, Ogasawara-shoto, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cocos (Keeling) I., Christmas I., Solomon Is., Western Australia, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Phoenix Is., Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marcus I., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.749, -75.846 · in the densest population, 222 records (41% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 537 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 232 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2289 km away. 1271 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 537 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Carica papayaCarica papayaCarica papayaCarica papayaCarica papayaCarica papayaCarica papayaCarica papaya

Photographs: (c) Stevie Steele, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andre Hosper, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Vivaan jalan, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Carica papaya, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Role of WRKY Transcription Factors in Plant Immunity
Shree P. Pandey, Imre E. Somssich (2009) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
The draft genome of the transgenic tropical fruit tree papaya (Carica papaya Linnaeus)
Ray Ming, Shaobin Hou, Yun Feng, Qingyi Yu (2008) · Nature
Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activities of Some Selected Medicinal Plants Used for Malaria Therapy in Southwestern Nigeria
SA Adesegun, Gloria A. Ayoola, HA Coker, A A Adepoju-Bello (2008) · Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
Green synthesis of colloidal copper oxide nanoparticles using Carica papaya and its application in photocatalytic dye degradation
Sankar Renu, Perumal Manikandan, Viswanathan Malarvizhi, Tajudeennasrin Fathima (2013) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Aluminum Tolerance in Transgenic Plants by Alteration of Citrate Synthesis
Juan Manuel de la Fuente, V. Ramírez‐Rodríguez, José Luis Cabrera‐Ponce, Luís Herrera‐Estrella (1997) · Science
Effect of chitosan coatings on the physicochemical characteristics of Eksotika II papaya (Carica papaya L.) fruit during cold storage
Asgar Ali, Mahmud Tengku Muda Muhammad, Kamaruzaman Sijam, Yasmeen Siddiqui (2010) · Food Chemistry
Finding and Comparing Syntenic Regions among Arabidopsis and the Outgroups Papaya, Poplar, and Grape: CoGe with Rosids
Eric Lyons, Brent S. Pedersen, Josh Kane, M. Shahid Alam (2008) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus
Cheryl Lans (2006) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Aqueous extract of Carica papaya leaves exhibits anti-tumor activity and immunomodulatory effects
Noriko Otsuki, Nam H. Dang, Emi Kumagai, Akira Kondo (2009) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Papain protects papaya trees from herbivorous insects: role of cysteine proteases in latex
Kotaro Konno, Chikara Hirayama, Masatoshi Nakamura, Ken Tateishi (2004) · The Plant Journal

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 123 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.