Most people are
familiar with paw paw, Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal,
only from a children’s song with the lyric “Pickin’ up paw paws puttin’ ‘em in her
pockets.”This could get messy if they
had time to ripen after having fallen because the texture is like custard when
fully ripe.I have gotten to taste one
ripe one.My patch of all clones, resulting from the many
suckers, has failed to set fruit due to the lack of a cross pollinator or parthanogenisis, but
I may be getting pollen from another source this year.The flowers, appearing before the leaves, look like odd little hats, and
are a dark brownish purple color.Another
common name for paw paw is Hoosier-banana due to the similar flavor with a
banana; paw paw is also applied to papaya, which is an unrelated tropical
fruit, Carica
L.Paw paw is native to most of the
eastern US, but five additional smaller species are found in the Deep South or
just Florida.I have seen small flower paw paw, A. parviflora(Michx.) Dunal, as far north as Little River Canyon Preserve.Two species discovered by William
Bartram, are showy or woolly paw paw, A. incana (Bartram) Exell, which has white flowers, and dwarf paw paw, A. pygmea (Bartram) Dunal, both of which he found in Florida or nearby parts of Georgia during the 1770s.Slimleaf paw paw, A. angustifolia Raf., is the only other species in Alabama where the range only reaches the southeast corner of the state.
The champion paw paw in Alabama is 55 feet tall,
30 inches around the trunk, and has an average spread of 22 feet.It is in RandolphCounty,
which is just south of ClayCounty where my late
maternal grandmother originally came from Delta, AL.She
remembered paw paws growing in clearings and some fruits having joints, which
is apparently where multiple berries result from one blossom.Since some were described as fruiting
while hidden in tall grass it was unclear whether or not she was distinguishing
between A. triloba(L.) Dunal and A. parviflora (Michx.) Dunal, which would match that description.
Despite there being numerous cultivars attempts at commercial
production have been limited because paw paws are somewhat difficult to
transplant, can be intolerant of full sun, and the soft fruit is incompatible for
shipment besides being disagreeable to sensitive individuals due to the possibility of some mild
toxic properties.In this case at least
paw paw is still worth planting since it is the host plant of zebra swallowtail butterflies. I finally noticed some of these butterflies around my paw paw patch in early 2009, although I suspect they may have been there a little longer due to some branches and smaller plants being partially defoliated in previous years.
She
remembered paw paws growing in clearings and some fruits having joints, which
is apparently where multiple berries result from one blossom. Since some were described as fruiting
while hidden in tall grass it was unclear whether or not she was distinguishing
between A. triloba (L.) Dunal and A. parviflora (Michx.) Dunal, which would match that description.