Native to southeastern North America, the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is the only tree in the custard apple family (Annonaceae) that grows in the U.S. The once-tropical pawpaw has been evolving for millions of years in North America into a tree that lives in a temperate climate, and needs a long-enough Winter to give it a period of dormancy. It grows best in Horticultural Zones 5-8.
It is a small, deciduous tree with simple, alternate, broad leaves, 10-12 inches long, narrowest at the base. Its preferred location is floodplains in hardwood forests. Sometimes spread by seeds, pawpaw reproduces most often by root sprouts, forming a clump of single-stemmed trees, a suckering, spreading colony. The leaves contain acetogenins, a natural insecticide, and they and the maroon flowers emit a foul odor when crushed, acting as a deterrent to native insects, livestock, and deer. There is always an exception, however, and pawpaw leaves are the only food for zebra swallowtail caterpillars. Twigs and unripe fruit are poisonous. You can quickly identify a pawpaw by its drooping leaves (I have heard botanists call it “sleepy looking”) that stink when crushed. If it’s Autumn, the leaves will be a striking yellow.
Botanists believe that the pawpaw evolved to its present state before bees and wasps did, which is why it is pollinated by more ancient species: carrion beetles and blowflies. They certainly are attracted to the flowers’ fetid smell. Native Americans hung dead fish from the branches to seduce pollinators, and today commercial pawpaw growers often hang chicken necks in the trees for the same reason. Although the flowers are perfect (each one containing male and female reproductive cells), generally two genetically different trees are needed for pollination.
The fruit, a large berry resembling a mango in size and shape, ripens in late September in our area. It is the largest edible fruit native to North America. When ripe, it tastes like a cross between a banana and a pear.
A valued part of Native Americans’ diets, pawpaws are highly nutritious, and contain cancer-fighting compounds, antioxidants, minerals, and amino acids. They were also used as treatments for cold sores, head lice, snake bites, and high blood pressure. Journals from the Lewis and Clark expedition contain references to the party being saved by eating pawpaws when food supplies ran low. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson planted pawpaws at Mount Vernon and Monticello. Naturalist John Bartram sent their seeds to Europe as early as 1736, and his son William listed pawpaws for sale in Bartram’s Garden Catalogue of 1783, as the “Pawpaw Apple.” Pawpaws are an important part of the diet of squirrels, raccoons, possums, foxes, and bears. In addition to eating the fruit, Indians and European settlers used the fibrous inner bark to make clothing, netting, baskets, sandals, and rope, and the ripe fruit as a dye.
Because they are so perishable, pawpaws have never had a widespread commercial use. They are treasured, however, in areas where they grow – pawpaw festivals are held in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland, and the fruit is usually available at farmers’ markets for a brief time in early Fall. The frozen pulp can be bought on the Internet year-round to make pies and custards. When you eat it, think of thousands of people over thousands of years being sustained by this delicious fruit. When I first saw the Paca Garden pawpaw, I thought how sad it was that the tree would never bear fruit, because there wasn’t a second tree for cross pollination. But our tree has borne fruit for the past 10 or 12 years, and is now, in late August/early September, covered with pawpaws………because one of the neighbors must have planted one too!
Dolores Dyson Engle
William Paca House and Garden Docent
