Carica is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caricaceae including one species, Carica papaya, the papaya (syn. C. peltata, C. posoposa), a widely cultivated fruit tree native to the American tropics.

The genus was formerly treated as including about 20-25 species of short-lived evergreen pachycaul shrubs or small trees growing to 5-10 m tall, native to tropical Central and South America, but recent genetic evidence has resulted in all of these species other than C. papaya being reclassified into three other genera.

Most of the other species have been transferred to the genus Vasconcellea, with a few to the genera Jacaratia and Jarilla, as follows:

• Carica baccata = Vasconcellea microcarpa subsp. baccata
• Carica candamarcensis = Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis (Mountain papaya)
• Carica candicans = Vasconcellea candicans (Mito)
• Carica caudata = Jarilla heterophylla
• Carica cauliflora = Vasconcellea cauliflora
• Carica cestriflora = Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis
• Carica chilensis = Vasconcellea chilensis
• Carica crassipetala = Vasconcellea crassipetala
• Carica cundinamarcensis = Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis
• Carica dodecaphylla = Jacaratia spinosa
• Carica glandulosa = Vasconcellea glandulosa
• Carica goudotiana = Vasconcellea goudotiana
• Carica heterophylla = Vasconcellea microcarpa subsp. heterophylla
• Carica horovitziana = Vasconcellea horovitziana
• Carica longiflora = Vasconcellea longiflora
• Carica mexicana = Jacaratia mexicana
• Carica microcarpa = Vasconcellea microcarpa
• Carica monoica = Vasconcellea monoica
• Carica nana = Jarilla nana
• Carica omnilingua = Vasconcellea omnilingua
• Carica palandensis = Vasconcellea palandensis
• Carica papaya (Papaya)
• Carica parviflora = Vasconcellea parviflora
• Carica pentagona = Vasconcellea heilbornii (Babaco)
• Carica pubescens = Vasconcellea pubescens (Mountain papaya or Chilean Carica)
• Carica pulchra = Vasconcellea pulchra
• Carica quercifolia = Vasconcellea quercifolia
• Carica sphaerocarpa = Vasconcellea sphaerocarpa
• Carica spinosa = Jacaratia spinosa
• Carica sprucei = Vasconcellea sprucei
• Carica stipulata = Vasconcellea stipulata
• Carica weberbaueri = Vasconcellea weberbaueri

References

• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Carica
• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Carica species list and synonymy
• 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.