Vasconcellea Explained

Vasconcellea is a genus with 26 species of flowering plants in the family Caricaceae. Most were formerly treated in the genus Carica, but have been split out on genetic evidence. The genus name has also been incorrectly spelled "Vasconcella".

They are evergreen pachycaul shrubs or small trees growing to 5 m tall, native to tropical South America. Many have edible fruit similar to papaya, and some are widely cultivated in South America.

Species:

• Vasconcellea badilloi
• Vasconcellea candicans
• Vasconcellea carvalhoae
• Vasconcellea cauliflora
• Vasconcellea chachapoyensis
• Vasconcellea chilensis
• Vasconcellea crassipetala
• Vasconcellea glandulosa
• Vasconcellea goudotiana
• Vasconcellea heilbornii
• Vasconcellea horovitziana
• Vasconcellea joseromeroi
• Vasconcellea jossei
• Vasconcellea lanceolata
• Vasconcellea longiflora
• Vasconcellea microcarpa
• Vasconcellea monoica
• Vasconcellea omnilingua
• Vasconcellea palandensis
• Vasconcellea parviflora
• Vasconcellea pentalobis
• Vasconcellea peruviensis
• Vasconcellea pubescens (Syn. Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis) (mountain papaya)
• Vasconcellea pulchra
• Vasconcellea quercifolia
• Vasconcellea sphaerocarpa
• Vasconcellea sprucei
• Vasconcellea stipulata
• Vasconcellea weberbaueri

Hybrids

• Vasconcellea × heilbornii var. pentagona (babaco)
• Vasconcellea x heilbornii var. chrysopetala
• Vasconcellea x heilbornii var. fructifragrans

References

• Ghent University: Vasconcellea
• Badillo, V. M. (2000). Carica L. vs. Vasconcella St. Hil. (Caricaceae) con la rehabilitacion de este ultimo. Ernstia 10: 74–79.
• Badillo, V. M. (2001). Nota correctiva Vasconcellea St. Hil. y no Vasconcella (Caricaceae). Ernstia 11: 75–76.
• Scheldeman, X. (2002). Distribution and potential of cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.) and highland papayas (Vasconcellea spp.) in Ecuador
• 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.
• Tineo D, Bustamante DE, Calderon MS, Mendoza JE, Huaman E, Oliva M (2020) An integrative approach reveals five new species of highland papayas (Caricaceae, Vasconcellea) from northern Peru. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0242469. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242469 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728213/
• Xavier Cornejo and José Flores Cedeño (2024) Vasconcellea jossei (Caricaceae): A new species of highland papaya with edible fruits from the Andes of Ecuador. Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2024, pp. 59–62.