Females and hermaphrodites of papaya (Carica papaya L.) of the Tainung Nº1 cultivar exhibit the same initial vigor

Abstract

The sexual types of papaya plants (Carica papaya L.), namely female, male, and hermaphrodite, can only be distinguished during their reproductive phase. As a result, numerous studies have been conducted to identify distinctive characteristics among these sexual types in papaya seedlings. One hypothesis suggests that leaf temperature and initial vigor may serve as differentiating factors in female and hermaphroditic plants. Therefore, the objective of this study was to contribute to the morphophysiological characterization of female and hermaphroditic papaya seedlings (cv. Tainung Nº1) by evaluating leaf temperature and initial growth vigor. The analysis was performed using a T-test (p < 0.05), employing a predictive approach as well to assess the potential genetic distance between the hermaphroditic and female sexual varieties. The results revealed that both hermaphroditic and female seedlings exhibited an average leaf temperature of 26.76°C, along with similar initial growth vigor. Consequently, the limited genetic differentiation, as well as the evaluated characteristics of the plants during the seedling stage, were insufficient to predict the sexual type of the plants.