The fruit is melon-like, oval to nearly round, somewhat
pyriform, or elongated club-shaped, 15-50 cm long and 10-
20 cm thick and weighing up to 9 kg (Morton 1987). Semiwild
(naturalized) plants bear small fruits 2.5-15 cm in
length. The skin is waxy and thin but fairly tough. When the
fruit is immature, it is rich in white latex and the skin is
green and hard. As ripening progresses, papaya fruits develop
a light- or deep- yellow-orange coloured skin while the
thick wall of succulent flesh becomes aromatic, yelloworange
or various shades of salmon or red. It is then juicy,
sweetish and somewhat like a cantaloupe in flavor but some
types are quite musky (Morton 1987). Mature fruits contain
numerous grey-black ovoid seeds attached lightly to the