Carica oakleaf
Oak-leaved carica (lat. Carica quercifolia) is a fruit plant belonging to the Caricaceae family.
Description
Carica oakleaf is a relatively short tree, the thickness of which can reach up to sixty centimeters. The flaky bark covering large branches and trunks is colored in pleasant reddish tones and dotted with a huge number of reddish-brown lenticels. And the smooth young branches boast a very peculiar grayish-greenish color.
The leaves of Carika oakleaf are quite large, and their outlines are similar to the outlines of oak leaves — hence the name of this crop. The leaves are always glossy on top and matte underneath.
Carica oakleaf is a dioecious crop. Male flowers form drooping and very showy multi-flowered inflorescences, while female flowers can be either single or collected in few-flowered racemes.
The berry fruits have an oblong pear-shaped or distinct oblong shape, are colored in bright orange tones and grow up to four centimeters in length. All trees can boast of quite high yields — over the course of one season, each of them can grow up to several thousand fruits. And inside these fruits are brown seeds, the length of which reaches five millimeters. These seeds have a round-spindle shape.
Where does it grow
The natural habitat of this crop is the subtropical and tropical zones located in South America, that is, it grows mainly in Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, as well as Paraguay and Bolivia. In cultivation, this plant can also be found in the warm-temperate zone (including Transcaucasia and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus).
Application
The berries of Carica oakleaf have a pleasant sweetish taste, which allows them to be eaten fresh with the skin. True, they are noticeably inferior in taste to almost all other subtropical and tropical berries. And their energy value is only 40 kcal for every 100 grams.
These berries are very rich in carotenoids called caricaxanthin and violaxanthin — it is from them that the vital vitamin A is synthesized in the human body. In general, the chemical composition of this crop is currently not well studied. However, the researchers were able to establish that both the fruits and the leaves with stems contain milky juice, which is endowed with a pronounced proteolytic effect, since the composition of this juice includes malic acid, valuable fatty oil, resins and papains, as well as a small amount of carpain, which is an alkaloid. And the leaves of the plant also contain useful alkaloids. Papain is widely used in medicine for indigestion, gastritis and even chronic dyspepsia. It will also serve well for burns, and it is also actively used externally to strengthen hair, as well as to remove age spots or freckles. Carpain is considered in medicine to be an excellent amoebocidal (that is, kills all protozoa) and cardiotonic agent.
Contraindications
Carica oakleaf has no contraindications as such, but still one should not discount the possibility of individual intolerance.
Growing and care
Carica oakleaf boasts impressive shade tolerance and drought tolerance, and will grow best in well-drained soils. In winter, this crop does not tolerate waterlogging of the soil very well, but it can withstand frosts down to minus six to seven degrees. And it can reproduce both by cuttings and by seeds.
