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| Pawpaw | ||||||||||||||
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| Asimina triloba |
The common Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a small tree that bears North America's largest native edible fruit. The pawpaw ranges from Florida to Southern Ontario, and as far west as Nebraska. The fruit has a "tropical" flavor, somewhat similar to banana or mango. It is kin (Family Annonaceae) to the custard apple, a fruit of tropical America.
The pawpaw is a small deciduous tree with droopy leaves. In the wild, it is an understory tree of deep, fertile bottomland soils. It has a long taproot and is difficult to transplant. Cultivars are propagated by chip budding or whip grafting.
The first European to see pawpaw was probably de Soto, who found Native Americans cultivating it. Although it is a delicious and nutritious fruit, it has never been cultivated on the scale of apples and peaches, primarily because it does not store or ship well. In recent years it has attracted renewed interest, particularly among organic growers as a native fruit which has few pests and does not require a lot of pesticides to cultivate.
The flowers are self incompatible, requiring cross pollination, and at least two different varieties of plants are needed as pollenizers. The flowers produce an odor similar to rotting meat to attract blowflies or carrion beetles for cross pollination. Lack of pollination is the most common cause of unfruitfulness, and growers resort to hand pollination, or to hang chicken necks (or other meat) to attract pollinators.
Other species of pawpaw
See also: Food, List of fruits, List of vegetables
