Pawpaw, a bit of the tropics here

By Rebecca Burcher Jones
Correspondent

Growing up as a Girl Scout, I remember singing a song about pawpaws. The chorus included this line: “Pickin’ up pawpaws, put ’em in your pockets, way down yonder in the paw patch.”

I don’t recall wondering then about the pawpaw. I might have thought it was simply a made-up word that sounded good in a ditty with a catchy little tune.

But the pawpaw is the largest edible tree fruit native to the United States. It grows on a tree, also called pawpaw, and is the only temperate member of a tropical plant family known as the “custard apple” family.

The botanical name for pawpaw is Asimina triloba. There are several nicknames for the tree, including “poor man’s banana.”

Pawpaw trees are plentiful at the Chesapeake Arbor­etum. Linda and Ed Bradley, volunteer trail stewards there, speculate that pawpaws grow more abundantly than any other native tree in the arboretum’s 43-acre mature hardwood forest.

“People ask questions about them,” Ed Bradley said. “Of all the trees in the forest, the pawpaw seems to draw people’s attention more than any other.”

Pawpaw trees thrive in rich, moist woodlands and especially near streams. Because of root suckering, they typically form clumps or thickets. They are native to 26 states, growing from northern Florida to southern Ontario and as far west as eastern Nebraska, and are common in Virginia.

Pawpaws are deciduous, understory trees that grow between 15 and 30 feet tall. They have unusually large, oblong leaves that measure up to 12 inches long, giving them a tropical look.

“In the winter, pawpaw trees just look like sticks,” Linda Bradley said. “Then, all of a sudden in the spring, there are these huge leaves. Not so many trees have such big leaves.”

Shortly before the leaves appear, pawpaw trees produce very small, dark maroon flowers that have an unpleasant odor. No wonder flies and beetles are their only pollinators.

August is an ideal time to observe pawpaw trees because this is when the fruit is forming, preparing to ripen in early fall. It is yellowish-green and oblong, ranging from 1 to 6 inches long.

Fruit appears singly and in clusters, like bananas. The creamy flesh of the sweet-smelling fruit tastes akin to a blend of papaya, banana, mango and pineapple.

Efforts have been under way at Kentucky State University for more than 20 years to encourage cultivation of pawpaws, particularly as a specialty crop. Next month, the university will host a two-day international conference on pawpaws, including lectures, reports and orchard tours.

The conference will conclude with a culinary extravaganza, during which participants can sip pawpaw smoothies.

The pawpaws growing at Chesapeake Arboretum, however, don’t produce much fruit. This is typical in native patches.

Several factors are likely: too much shade, too few pollinators in woodlands and failed cross-pollination.

Since pawpaws cannot self-pollinate, another unrelated pawpaw must be in the vicinity.

Pawpaw leaves are the sole food source for caterpillars that become zebra swallowtail butterflies.

Rebecca Burcher Jones, rebeccaburcher@cox.net