The genus was formerly treated as including about 20-25 species of short-lived evergreenpachycaulshrubs or small trees growing to 5–10 m tall, native to tropicalCentral and South America, but recent genetic evidence has resulted in all of these species other than C. papaya being reclassified into three other genera.
Taxonomy
The genus name comes from the botanical name of the fig, Ficus carica, because of the species' leaves or fruits resemble that of it. The carica epithet comes from Caria in southwest Anatolia (Asia Minor), Turkey, where the fig was mistakenly thought to have come from.[2]
Species
According to World Flora Online, the genus Carica lists 21 species.[1] Most of the other species have since been transferred to the genus Vasconcellea, with a few to the genera Jacaratia and Jarilla. According to the Catalogue of Life, the four remaining species in the genus are:
Aradhya, M. K. et al. (1999). A phylogenetic analysis of the genus Carica L. (Caricaceae) based on restriction fragment length variation in a cpDNA intergenic spacer region. Genet. Resources Crop Evol. 46: 579–586.
Badillo, V. M. (2000). Carica L. vs. Vasconcella St. Hil. (Caricaceae) con la rehabilitacion de este ultimo. Ernstia 10: 74–79.
Van Droogenbroeck, B. et al. (2002). AFLP analysis of genetic relationships among papaya and its wild relatives (Caricaceae) from Ecuador. Theoret. Appl. Genet. 105: 289–297.
