 Photo Credit: Scott Bauer, USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Horticulture Chair Nancy Percivall introduced us to the pawpaw tree, Asimina triloba. The pawpaw is a deciduous tree native to North America and produces large yellowish-green to brown fruit. The fruit is fragrant and has a distinctly bright, tropical flavor somewhat similar to banana, mango, and pineapple. Nancy made shortbread cookies with a pawpaw fruit filling for members to taste the fruit.
The pawpaw is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree of hardwood forests, which is found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and also hilly upland habitat. It has large, simple leaves with drip tips, more characteristic of plants in tropical rainforests. A few fun facts: the pawpaw is the only plant on which the larvae of the zebra swallowtail butterfies will feed and if you tear the leaf, it smells like motor oil. Comments are closed.
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