13279 Vasconcellea x heilbornii – Babaco – Mountain Papaya

Description

The robust, evergreen mountain papaya grows as a shrub or small tree at an altitude of 1500-3000 m. It grows in nature almost never larger than 8-10 m. It forms a thick, fleshy trunk of a maximum of 1.50-2 m height. Its leaves are much darker green, less jagged and, above all, tolerate temperatures that are too cold for other papaya species. In English we call the fast-growing plant Mountain-Papaya, Mountain-Pawpaw or Babaco. The fruits are rather cucumber-shaped, are cooked with the shell and eaten as a vegetable. When ripe, the skin is orange and the fruit is very sweet.