IDENTIFICATION
Local
name: Popo
Common
name: Pawpaw
Botanical
name: Carica papaya
Family: Caricaceae
Habitat:
It is a cultivated plant which exist mostly in clay soils.
(b) MORPHOLOGY:
Habit:
It is a weak, soft-wooded plant, it is palm like in appearance, it is a
perennial herbaceous plant that
is often planted. It is sometimes growing wild
on old farmland. The stem is usually unbranched, the bark is grey and marked
visibly by the numerous large leave scars. The plant is plentifully supplied
with abundant milky latex. Leaves are dark green, large and deeply to bed. The
leaf stalk is very long, cylichrical and hollow.
Flower is dioeciously meaning
that it has both male and female part born on different plant. The male flower
has a minute calyx of five small united sepals and a long corolla tube divided
from to thirds of its length into five pointed tubes. The female flowers are
much larger than the male and are more or less without stalk. Fruits have
various shapes and size which is globular or round, oblong, often five angled.
They are bright orange in colour when ripe.
(c) UTILIZATION
The petioles are collected and cut into pieces and
boiled in a pot after which it is taken in a half cup twice daily for the
treatment of sore throat. The decoztion of the root is used in curing
kwashiorkor while that of the leaves are used for malaria and fever. The fruit
is edible and a good source of vitamin C.
(d) CONSERVATION
It
is a cultivated plant found mainly in orchard and plantations. It is grown and
protected for both medicinal and economic values.
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