Papaya question

This papaya tree or plant whatever you like,,reached a heighth of over 15 feet in approximately one year and 3 months, as did the others. The others are pure female, bearing much larger fruit. This one has small fruit the size of a medium potato. There are over 40-70 fruits on it at any given time, with many seeds inside. It actually grew faster than the others and bigger. The trunk is very thick and hard for a papaya. It seems to like this SE location of morning and noon sunshine.
MY QUESTION IS: Is this a male plant with a recessive female gene? I have read extensively on the subject and understand that there are at least 3 sexes, male , female and hermaphrodite. I thought I read somewhere that there can be up to 5 different sexual variations. Each having significant male female ratio,,,(dominant female, recessive male), (dominant male recessive female), pure male, pure female, and hermaphrodite. This example of smaller fruits with small dark yellow flowers close to trunk,, I have never seen before. I started them all from seeds obtained from grocery store bought papayas.

Even the leaves look strange. The parents might have been genetically modified and this one's a deformity. In all the time I've grown them (decades) have never seen anything like that.

Wow!! Amazing!!! What do you do with all those fruit?

Belle

Nothing really. Occasionally gather fallen ones to use for seed. The critters and mulch pile take care of them. There is really no viable edible flesh of the fruit to speak of. It is more like a big seed pod actually. You could with much patience and lots of peeling get maybe a few tablespoons or less from each "fruit". I recently saw a red bellied woodpecker feeding on them, the seeds or maybe insects up there. Here is an internet photo of the species I saw feeding there...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80166300@N02/9269771693/
I am sure opossoms eat some too.

So they are tiny!!

I need a plant identified , if anyone can please......It just showed up one day, another volunteer,,, and grew extremely quickly with last months nearly daily torrential rains to a heighth of 6 feet or so.

Looks like a Sesbania. There's a number of species, not sure which one this is. Some grow as a bush, some grow as a small tree.

I believe your research is correct, it is male, although I couldn't say how much of the recessive gene contains which. I grew up in Liberia and saw those like in your photo quite a bit.
Like you, I grew mine from grocery store, but lucked out with the self producing variety.
You mention that the small fruit are full of seeds, tried growing any?

No research. We have native ones here. I have one of the bushy ones growing in my dam. Start of wet season the dam is empty but the first rains start the Sesbania growing. They keep growing until they get covered with water, then they die off under water. The water gets to 5 metres deep and then in the dry season it starts to dry out. The Sesbania doesn't start growing again until the first rains of the new wet season, and that looks like it's from seeds and not old root stock.

Elsewhere I've seen them in our floodplains, but there they don't get totally inundated and grow right through the season. It's probable that water birds brought seed from the floodplains to my dam.

Our tree sized species grow all year and don't seem to need as much water. I had one on another place, it's a really nice tree.

THANKS !!! You nailed it
Sesbania herbacea (syn. S. exaltata)
a.k.a. Danglepod
Native to Florida
This photo is mine, taken outside the shop on 73rd Street.

Sesbania herbacea is found in disturbed sites and is frequent nearly throughout the state of Florida (Wunderlin, 2003). It blooms from summer to fall and is equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands. (This from University of Florida) www.ufl.edu/

It just appeared one day in a bed I had just turned over and replanted with existing and niew plants. The birds or wind must have deposited seeds, because it was a volunteer, much like alot of things I find in the garden here. It is not so much what to plant around here as , what to prune back or dig up.

What should I do with it? It is so large now that it is growing almost 3 feet into street. You say it is a male plant? It has numerous yellow flowers that fade with heat and direct sun, although it does get shad during hottest part of the day. Should I propagate it? Does it have any beneficial uses? We have some native plant enthusiasts here,, some are actually more than "enthusiastic" , but seemingly crazed at times,, zealous even... Maybe I should look into finding one who might want it or seeds from it... I will continue to research it , but not finding too much on it , at this time....
Anyone have a use for it? or recommendations...?
Joseph

Good question, would leave it around if you have other trees. Other than that, I'm not sure if the seeds will produce, but I certainly would experiment! It may b a while, but my trees are starting to fruit and would share seeds. They are 7th generation from the original 8 years ago, and have saved the seeds every year, except last year when I moved to Chicago for a year..yep no papayas there! These are the self producing type.
I can see why there is enthusiasm as I haven't seen your tree here stateside, except Florida.
Hope you post your findings
Rj

I can't be certain if the seeds from these very small "fruits" are germinating, because I often leave the wet seeds outdoors to dry because they attract alot of fruit flies. As a result, the birds and various animals try to eat them and they scatter them around all over the place, so I have papayas growing like weeds everywhere. Some of the "volunteers" I leave in place , some I transplant. I would have to isolate those seeds from the smaller fruits, and do a controlled sowing , to be sure. One benefit of so many papayas, is I trade a small papaya with the cashier at the convenience store, for things I buy there, at least 3-4 times a week ...

Same thing here, have trees growing in places I never thought of planting. My volunteers are really cranky about transplanting. No matter how much I try not to disturb the roots. Even when they are very small.

Sesbania is a butterfly host plant.

Thanks for everyone's input, I rarely check these posts, as I am not a paid subscriber yet. Thanks so much for your input, rjuddharrison, you have confirmed my researched and re-affirmed my findings and what I say to the "nay sayers" who think they know everything...lol. I will try to update more about my new and current papaya plants, but am "camera challenged" at this time.
Thanks again.... Oh, and btw, the sesbania has returned in the exact same location, and they are about 6" tall at this time.
Peace to all, Joseph