Pawpaw is not a commercially important crop in the U.S. Pawpaw also makes a flavorful fruit wine. Pawpaw can be a substitute for equal parts of banana in most recipes. The flesh purees easily and freezes nicely. Its intense tropical flavor and aroma are ideal for processed food products, including blended fruit drinks, baby food, ice creams, etc. For the best flavor, eat fully ripe pawpaw fruits. It exceeds apple, peach, and grape in most vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and food energy values. Pawpaw is an excellent food source that is high in carbohydrates. Seeds and the green peel (skin) contain alkaloids that are emetic (which causes vomiting) therefore, the seeds and peel should not be consumed. Inside the fruit are two rows of large, brown, bean-shaped seeds that may be up to 1 inch long. Pawpaw is typically eaten as fresh fruit or processed into desserts. With refrigeration, fruit can last up to 3 weeks while maintaining good eating quality. The shelf-life of a tree-ripened fruit stored at room temperature is 3 to 5 days. Seeds are large, smooth, and easily discarded when eating. The flesh is rich and sweet with a custard-like consistency and is best eaten with a spoon.
PAWPAW ZEBRA SWALLOWTAIL SKIN
The skin of ripening fruit turns light green to yellowish (peak ripeness) to black (over-ripe), which mimics the stages of a ripening banana in look, texture, and somewhat in flavor.
The fruit should not be harvested until the skin gives (indents) slightly with a finger squeeze as fruit do not ripen properly if picked when very firm. This highly aromatic fruit tastes similar to a banana, mango, or pineapple. Pawpaws have a thin green skin and yellow, golden, or white flesh. Pawpaw ( Asimina triloba) fruit may be borne singly or in clusters.ĭavid Ouellette, ©2022, Clemson University If pollinators are scarce, hand pollination, although laborious, can be worthwhile. Under cultivation, some trees can produce up to 25 to 50 pounds per tree. Fruit set is usually low in the wild due to a scarcity of pollinators. Pollination is thought to be done by nitidulid beetles (night flying) or bottle flies (day foragers), which is consistent with the appearance of the flower that has dark, maroon-colored petals and a weak, unpleasant aroma. Thus, pollen from an unrelated, genetically different pawpaw is necessary for fertilization and fruit set to occur.
Flowers are self-incompatible, which means that flowers must be cross-pollinated. The blossoms exclusively occur on the previous year’s branches and may be up to 2 inches wide. In sunny locations, trees typically form a pyramidal shape with a single straight trunk bearing 6 to 12 inch, obovate-oblong, dark green, drooping leaves that turn yellow in the fall.įlowers emerge before the leaves in mid-spring, with the flowering period often extending over several weeks. This usually results from prolific root suckering, although seedlings may develop from fruits that drop to the ground but are uncommon and often are found some distance from a pawpaw thicket as the fruit is carried off and consumed by animals. It can often be found in the forest understory, where it grows in clumps or thickets. Pawpaw is a small, deciduous tree that may attain 15 to 30 feet in height.
In addition, pawpaws are suitable for butterfly gardens as they are the exclusive larval host plant of zebra swallowtails ( Eurytides marcellus). Pawpaws are ideally suited for the residential “edible” landscape due to their lush, tropical appearance, attractive pyramidal growth form, small tree size, vibrant yellow fall color, few insect or disease pests, and fruit that possesses hints of subtropical flavors. Pawpaw is a slow-growing tree that requires 3 to 4 years of growth before it has the physical structure to produce and support the fruit clusters. In South Carolina, it is best to avoid coastal climates for most varieties due to the tree’s need for winter chilling though some selections from its southern range likely only require 400-600 chill hours. They grow in 25 states in the eastern United States, ranging from northern Florida to southern Ontario (Canada) and as far west as eastern Nebraska, and are hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 8. Pawpaws grow in the deep, rich fertile soils of river-bottom lands where they grow as understory trees or shrubby thickets. Pawpaw ( Asimina triloba), also known as papaw, Indiana banana, Hoosier banana, Michigan banana, and poor man’s banana, is the only temperate member of the tropical Annonaceae family (custard apple family) and is the largest edible tree fruit native to the United States.
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