This article is about the various species of pawpaws in the American plant genus Asimina. For the common pawpaw of eastern North America, see
Asimina triloba. For the unrelated tropical papaya fruit often called papaw or pawpaw, see
Carica papaya. For other uses, see
Paw Paw (disambiguation).
Asimina is a
genus of small
trees or shrubs described as a genus in 1763.[2][3]Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family
Annonaceae.[4]Asimina have large, simple leaves and large fruit. It is native to eastern North America and collectively referred to as pawpaw. The genus includes the widespread common pawpaw Asimina triloba, which bears the largest edible
fruit indigenous to the United States.[5] Pawpaws are native to 26 states of the U.S. and to
Ontario in Canada.[5][6] The common pawpaw is a
patch-forming (clonal)understory tree found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat. Pawpaws are in the same plant family (Annonaceae) as the
custard apple,
cherimoya,
sweetsop,
soursop, and
ylang-ylang;[7] the genus is the only member of that family not confined to the
tropics.
The common name (American) pawpaw, also spelled paw paw, paw-paw, and papaw, probably derives from the Spanish papaya, perhaps because of the superficial similarity of their fruits.[10]
Description
Pawpaws are shrubs or small trees to 2–12 m (6.6–39.4 ft) tall. The northern, cold-tolerant common pawpaw (A. triloba) is
deciduous, while the southern species are often
evergreen.
The
leaves are alternate, obovate, entire, 20–35 cm (7.9–13.8 in) long and 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) broad.
The flowers of pawpaws are produced singly or in clusters of up to eight together; they are large, 4–6 cm across, perfect, with three sepals and six petals (three large outer petals, three smaller inner petals). The petal color varies from white to purple or red-brown.
The fruit of the common pawpaw is a large, edible
berry, 5–16 cm (2.0–6.3 in) long and 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) broad, weighing from 20–500 g (0.71–17.64 oz), with numerous
seeds; it is green when unripe, maturing to yellow or brown. It has a flavor somewhat similar to both
banana and
mango, varying significantly by cultivar, and has more
protein than most fruits.[5]
Species and their distributions
11 species and several natural interspecies hybrids are accepted.[1][11][12]
Asimina angustifolia Raf. 1840 not A. Gray 1886 – Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina[13] Regarded as a synonym of A. longifolia by some authorities.[14]
Asimina manasota DeLaney – Manasota papaw native to two counties in Florida (
Manatee +
Sarasota); first described in 2010[16] Not recognized by some authorities.[17]
Asimina triloba(
L.) Dunal – common pawpaw. Extreme southern
Ontario,
Canada, and the eastern United States from
New York west to southeast
Nebraska, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. (Annona triloba L.[23])
Ecology
The common pawpaw is native to shady, rich bottom lands, where it often forms a dense undergrowth in the forest, often appearing as a patch or thicket of individual, small, slender trees.
Pawpaw flowers are insect-
pollinated, but fruit production is limited since few if any
pollinators are attracted to the flower's faint, or sometimes nonexistent scent. The flowers produce an odor similar to that of
rottingmeat to attract
blowflies or
carrion beetles for cross pollination.[24] Other insects that are attracted to pawpaw plants include scavenging
fruit flies,
carrion flies and
beetles. Because of difficult pollination, some[who?] believe the flowers are self-incompatible.
The leaves, twigs, and bark of the common pawpaw tree contain natural insecticides known as
acetogenins.[26]
Larvae of the
zebra swallowtail butterfly feed exclusively on young leaves of the various pawpaw species, but never occur in great numbers on the plants.[27]
The pawpaw is considered an evolutionary anachronism, where a now-extinct evolutionary partner, such as a Pleistocene megafauna species, formerly consumed the fruit and assisted in seed dispersal.[28]
Cultivation and uses
Wild-collected fruits of the common pawpaw (A. triloba) have long been a favorite treat throughout the tree's extensive native range in eastern North America.[5] Pawpaws have never been widely cultivated for fruit, but interest in pawpaw cultivation has increased in recent decades.[5] Fresh pawpaw fruits are commonly eaten raw; however, once ripe they
store only a few days at room temperature and do not ship well unless frozen.[5][29] Other methods of preservation include
dehydration, production of
jams or
jellies, and pressure
canning. The fruit pulp is also often used locally in baked dessert recipes,[30] with pawpaw often substituted in many
banana-based recipes.
^Flora of North America: Asimina triloba.
"Asimina triloba". Flora of North America. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
^Boning, Charles R. (2006). Florida's Best Fruiting Plants: Native and Exotic Trees, Shrubs, and Vines. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. pp. 172–173.
ISBN978-1-56164-372-1.
^Werthner, William Benjamin; Werthner, Evangeline Hippard; Kienholz, Aaron Raymond (1935). Some American trees an intimate study of native Ohio trees. Macmillan.
OCLC681865854.[page needed]
^Sargent, Charles Sprague; Faxon, Charles Edward; Gill, Mary (Wright) (1933). Manual of the trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). Houghton Mifflin.
OCLC680282467.[page needed]
^Boone, Madison J.; Davis, Charli N.; Klasek, Laura; del Sol, Jillian F.; Roehm, Katherine; Moran, Matthew D. (January 2015). "A Test of Potential Pleistocene Mammal Seed Dispersal in Anachronistic Fruits using Extant Ecological and Physiological Analogs". Southeastern Naturalist. 14 (1): 22–32.
doi:
10.1656/058.014.0109.
S2CID86809830.