Did you get a taste of pawpaws this season?
I’ve been on a crusade to spread the word about pawpaws. Many people I’ve come across admit they never knew what those big green bulbs were up in the trees ir what those smashed, pungent purple fruits were on the trail floor. Now they do. Pawpaw, one of the only two fruit trees native to Virginia […]
I’ve been on a crusade to spread the word about pawpaws. Many people I’ve come across admit they never knew what those big green bulbs were up in the trees ir what those smashed, pungent purple fruits were on the trail floor. Now they do.
Pawpaw, one of the only two fruit trees native to Virginia (American persimmon is another). They love to grow in slightly damp soils with a large tree canopy above. The heavily wooded hillsides of the James River Park, for example.
I ate just one this year, and it was a little bland — probably not ripe enough. You might find your own, but there isn’t much time left. I haven’t been out on the trails in a week or so, but there weren’t many out back then. Seems to have been an earlier season. If nothing else, I’ve gotten a large amount of search engine traffic to find information about pawpaws this year, which is something.
From wikipedia:
Pawpaw (Asimina) is a genus of eight species of small trees or shrubs with large simple leaves and large fruit, native to eastern North America. The genus includes the widespread common pawpaw Asimina triloba, which bears the largest edible fruit indigenous to the continent. Pawpaws are native to 26 states of the U.S. and to Ontario in Canada. 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, ylang-ylang and soursop; the genus is the only member of that family not confined to the tropics.
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