Papaya (cross section of trunk)

Description:

This was quite a large plant, about 3 years old, with a trunk of 8-9 inches (18cms). It developed root rot from too much water during the monsoon, and fell over. I sawed it lengthwise down the trunk to put it on the compost, and was amazed to see the structure of the inside, so I photographed it to share on Noah! The papaya, papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae. The papaya is a large, tree-like plant, with a single stem growing from 5 to 10 m (16 to 33 ft) tall, with spirally arranged leaves confined to the top of the trunk. The lower trunk is conspicuously scarred where leaves and fruit were borne. The leaves are large, 50–70 cm (20–28 in) in diameter, deeply palmately lobed, with seven lobes.