LOL A guy at work just told me yesterday he was at friends house and ate one and showed me a pic. PawPaw Apparently you need two trees close by so they can pollenate properly. Prior to that the only association I had with Paw Paw was the song we sang in grade school "Way down yonder in the PawPaw patch"
LOL There ain't no paw paw up here in Maine that I've ever seen. Never heard of it! Looks like rice pudding with raisins inside.
One of the only true native North American fruits. Grow wild in thickets in Eastern US From Northern Florida North to Michigan, Ontario and Western NY then West to a bit beyond the Mississippi. It is a tropical tree that had adapted to North America. The Eastern US basically becomes the tropics in Summer anyway. Also called Indiana or Michigan Banana. Many thickets of these have been clear cut so that is why few know of them. They were important to Indians and settlers for food. It is like eating vanilla or banana pudding. Incredible. Just spit out the big seeds. I planted 16 trees this year in Mass where almost no one else is. I managed to get a few from one of the few. Prices these things can bring where they are rare like here and NYC are quite high. I am about 3-4 years away from fruit. The fruit you don’t have to spray. Insects leave them alone. Anyone looking for a unique tropical looking tree this is it. As he said you need two varieties for pollination.
Ken, correct. They never made it that far North. Will see if they will grow well here in my part of Mass. They should. Native to Michigan anyway.
Seriously looking tropical leaves. This fruit is one of the few that actually had protein. I have planted 16 trees.
Just one more reason V8Buick rocks. Never know what you might learn about unrelated to cars! Thanks for posting Dave!
You got it. There is also Pawpaw Illinois and one other state I forgot as well. There is a great book out about Pawpaws where author travels around to where they grow native including the named towns. He even finds wild pawpaws in Missouri where Lewis and Clark expedition lived on the fruit for a while as well as Monticello. It was apparently Jefferson and Washington’s favorite fruit. Some real history here.
