Papaya plants develop their full size in less than a year. A piece of papaya leaf placed on a sore will promote rapid healing, and mashed papaya fruit is used to treat skin blemishes. Used for money in Mesoamerica from the earliest times, and also by the Aztecs. Also used for a refreshing beverage to which other vegetable products were added. Comes in both spiny and non-spiny varieties.
Fruit is boiled like potatoes, and tastes something like the potato.
Its leaves are eaten like spinach. The fruit of the Ramon is ground up and used as a maize substitute in the making of tortillas. This tree grows well where maize grows and so Lacandon plant their maize where the Ramon is found to be growing. Tomato - native to Peru, but reached Middle America quite early. Grown at medium altitudes.