A slow growing palm, to 7m. The small fibrous fruit have a juicy, tangy-apricot taste on a good tree, and are well liked, as the alternative common names indicate. Soaking first in mildly warm water for several days may help. Planting the seeds where warm day temperatures will be followed by cooler nights is recommended. C a psicum pubescens.
Leaves are pubescent and ovate.
Fruit are very hot, and bright yellow. Fragrant when ripe, the fruit is better cooked as a desert. The oak leaved papaya, cold hardier than the others, to about -5 C, but, like them, it doesn't like wet feet in winter. An interesting small orange fruit about 4cm long, with a mild taste of its own. The huge trunks, thick and swollen, with hundreds of small fruit on the female plants, green to ripe orange, on the bare stems in early winter, never fail to attract attention.