Species Spotlight: Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
The pawpaw is among our most interesting and exotic native trees. Its fruits sustained some of America’s most important explorers on their expeditions. The pawpaw looks exotic with its deep red flowers, huge leaves, and large fruits. Its edible fruits are the largest of any North American tree. They taste like a combination of banana and mango.
The pawpaw fruit kept both the Lewis and Clark expedition and Desoto’s Spanish Conquistadors from starvation when rations ran low. On September 18, 1806, during their journey back to St. Louis, Clark wrote, “our party entirely out of provisions Subsisting on poppaws. we divide the buiskit which amount to nearly one buisket per man, this in addition to the poppaws is to last us down to the Settlement’s which is 150 miles the party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on the pappaws.” A member of Hernando de Soto’s voyage wrote, “The fruit is like unto Peares Riall [pears royal]; it has a very good smell and an excellent taste.”
Cherokee and Iroquois tribes used pawpaw as a food source and planted it throughout the landscape. The Cherokee would use its inner bark to make cordage. Iroquois tribes mashed the fruits into cakes and dried fruits for later use. Today, the fruits are mixed into puddings, ice cream, and breads or eaten raw with a spoon.
Its fruits are eaten by a diversity of mammals. Squirrels, opossums, raccoons, gray fox, and black bear all feast upon it. The bark is consumed by beavers. Their leaves feed 10 species of butterfly caterpillars including the stunning zebra swallowtail. In the Mid-Atlantic region the pawpaw is often found growing near creeks, rivers, and canals. The stunning deep red flowers can be found in April and the fruits can be picked for eating in September. The best place to find an abundance of these brilliant trees is directly along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Next time you take a walk, keep your eyes peeled for the large green fruits growing overhead.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/asitri/all.html