Chadwick Preserve POI C8 Pawpaw Patch

Proceed on the southeast portion of the Long Point Trail from C7 Picnic Rock for about 20 yards. You will see a large stand of dark green leafed 10' to 14' trees set about 20' to the left of the trail. This is the Pawpaw Patch. The small trees with very large leaves here are northern pawpaw, also called Asimina triloba, whose yellowish-green to brown fruits are the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States.

Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family Annonaceae, and northern pawpaw has the most northern range of all of its species. Well-known tropical relatives include custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, and soursop (guanábana in Spanish). Pawpaw fruits are sweet, with a custard-like texture, and a flavor somewhat similar to banana, mango, and pineapple. They are commonly eaten raw, but are also used to make ice cream and baked desserts. Their shelf life is only a few days, which is why they’re rarely available in markets except for farmers’ markets.

Until the expansion of humans into North America at the end of the last ice age, dispersal of pawpaw seeds occurred mainly via the dung of certain megafauna such as mastodons, mammoths, and giant ground sloths. It is thought that humans replaced megafauna as the species’ main disperser. Native Americans planted pawpaw patches and feasted on the fruits every year in late September.

A pawpaw tree sends out runners and grows new stems, spreading over an ever-increasing area. The several dozen trees you see here are all one individual, connected underground. Because pawpaw flowers are self-incompatible, that is, they can’t be fertilized by pollen from the same tree, this tree has never fruited. The Rose Valley Environmental Advisory Council is planting pawpaw trees here that are genetically unrelated so this stand will someday produce fruit.

Latham, Dr. Roger. The Pawpaw Patch. Notes for the Chadwick Preserve-9/17/2023.