Originally from Central America. It belongs to the Caricaceae family and to the genus Carica.
It is a fast-growing herb with a very superficial root, alternating leaves, female flowers, hermaphrodite or male flowers and the fruit is an ovoid-oblong, piriform or almost cylindrical berry, large, fleshy and juicy.
The world production is eleven million tons and the main producing countries are Brazil, Nigeria and India.