Narrative

Papaya (Carica papaya) is a small tree that is grown in the tropics around the world. This species originated in the lowlands of South America.

The yellow color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated. This lifeform is grown commerically for human food This lifeform is locally common.

This lifeform is found in central Africa. This lifeform is found widely in the Indo-Australian region. This non-native lifeform is now locally established in North America.. This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Carica genus (papaya, pawpaw) originated in South America. There are about 22 species of trees and shrubs in this genus. Carica papaya is the only species that was established in North America as of 1996.

Carica Family contains 31 species in four different genera. Only one species is established in greater North America.

Parietales Order is a large assemblage containing over thirty different families. The violets are a well-known group in this order. The St. Johnswort family is another well known family in this order.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.