Donald Culross Peattie - A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America: pp 287-288

PAWPAW [Papaw]

Asimina triloba (Linnaeus) Dunal

OTHER NAMES: Wild Banana. Custard Apple. Fetidshrub.

RANGE: From northern Florida to western New York State, the northern shores of Lake Ontario, southern Michigan and southwestern Iowa, and west to southeastern Nebraska, eastern parts of Kansas and Oklahoma and eastern Texas.

DESCRIPTION: Bark thin, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored blotches, covered by small, wart-like excrescences, and divided by long, shallow depressions. Twigs light brown tinged with red marked by narrow, shallow grooves. Winter buds 1/8 inch long, clothed with rusty brown hairs. Leaves 10 to 12 inches long and 4 to 6 broad, light green, paler below. Flowers nearly 2 inches across, pale green becoming brown, then maroon or purple. Fruit 3 to 5 inches long, becoming dark and wrinkled when ripe, with custardy flesh. Wood very light (25 pounds to the cubic foot, dry weight), soft, weak, spongy, and coarse-grained, with light greenish yellow heartwood and darker sapwood.

The first reference to this curious species of an otherwise notably tropical family occurs in the chronicles of DeSoto's expedition in the Mississippi valley in 1541, for naturally an edible fruit of such size was important to a host of conquistadores always near starvation. But, after that, for two centuries the Pawpaw flourished unknown save by wild animals and red men, until Mark Catesby delineated it in his Natural History of Carolina, that master work whose plates are fresh with wilderness still.

Once abundant in the Mississippi valley, where it formed dense thickets of wide extent, the Pawpaw is today in the northeastern states only a scattered understory tree, though to the south it may become 30 to 40 feet tall, with a straight trunk more than a foot in diameter. Everything about it is odd and unforgettable. The leaves are among the largest in our sylva, and in autumn, when they turn a butter yellow, they are the mellowest of the season's tones. The flowers, with their exotic look borrowed from tropical relatives, hardly seem to belong to the cool vernal world on which they open. At first green, the petals soon turn brown, and then they become a dark winy color, with an odor to match, a remembrance of fermenting purple grapes. As to the fruit, the better it grows, the uglier, for it is only when it is thoroughly mature, in late fall, that it is edible. At first the skin is greenish yellow; gradually it darkens, and when it is nearly black, wrinkled, and looks unappetizing - in October or November - at last the yellow or orange flesh is soft, custardy, and palatable

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Pawpaws have had their enthusiasts from the days of the Creeks, Cheraws, and Catawbas, who often planted them, to the present. Such wood-wise people know that there are good and bad trees, as to flavor, and have long insisted that selection would soon result in marked improvement of the fruit; in general, the orange-fleshed variety is considered much more tasty. Pawpaws were made into a jelly by the early settlers, and still in southern towns sometimes appear in the markets. The seeds contain a powerful alkaloid which, it has been noted, has a stupefying effect on the brains of animals, yet opossums are great Pawpaw eaters, and raccoons and gray squirrels also appreciate the fruit.

For the wood there are no uses, but the inner bark was woven into fiber cloth by the Louisiana Indians, and the pioneers employed it for stringing fish. In its range a characteristic part of American country life, the Pawpaw, for all its exotic kinship, seems an intensely native tree, above all in the frosty autumn, when the leaves droop withering on the stem and the great plashy fruits hang preposterously heavy on the twigs.

Alan Davidson and Charlotte Knox - Fruit a Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook: page 124

The PAPAW, the fruit of a small North American tree, Asimina triloba, is found as far north as New York State. It has for long been cultivated by Native Americans and whites alike. Its name is sometimes spelled "pawpaw," a corrupted name which is, confusingly, often also given to the completely different papaya. And it is yet another of the fruits which are referred to by the general name custard apple.

The papaw has a smooth, yellowish skin without the knobs or reticulations which are characteristic of its tropical relatives. The shape is slightly elongated and curved, and the average fruit is 4 inches long. The pulp, like that of other annonaceous fruits, is yellow, soft, and smooth. It has a rich, sweet, creamy flavor evocative of both the banana and the pear. All this is overlaid with a heavy fragrance, and some find the whole effect cloying. "Edible for boys" is one verdict. Papaw is usually eaten raw, but can be baked or made into various desserts.

*excerpts used without permission.