Gems | Flash Post 317
Button, were you there when the gardener informed us why the papaya tree in our terrace garden stubbornly refuses to bear fruit?
I was present and I was amazed at what he said. Why don’t you share it with our readers?
Well, as you know, Button, we’ve had this papaya tree in the garden for as long as we’ve lived here.
Which is around 7 years, I would imagine!
More. It’s grown up into a strapping seven-footer but not given fruit even once. In fact it was barididi who casually enquired of the gardener why this was so. That’s when our gardener informed us that the papaya tree we have in our terrace garden is a male tree.
It was a revelation.
Never did it strike us that this could be the only reason why our papaya tree has never borne fruit. Of course, he didn’t go into the details of how we can distinguish a male tree from a female one and was kind enough to offer to get a female papaya tree.
The lone papaya tree will finally have a friend.
The flowers of the papaya tree are exquisitely beautiful. This is the first time I’m seeing their images. Another revelation is that there are hermaphrodite papaya flowers that have the stamen as well as the pistil which are the male and female organs. These trees can produce fruit without pollination.
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