The pawpaw is a true American native. The fossil record indicates that the pawpaw's forebears established themselves in North America millions of years before the arrival of humans. The Native Americans were great lovers of the pawpaw and introduced it to European explorers: the DeSoto expedition of 1540 reported encountering tribes that cultivated the fruit. In 1736, Quaker botanists John Bartram and Peter Collinson arranged for specimens to be sent to England. European settlers from the East Coast westward to Michigan, Oklahoma, and Louisiana named towns, creeks, and islands after the pawpaw. John James Audubon painted the yellow-billed cuckoo on the branches of a pawpaw tree. Yet, the only way most Americans know of pawpaws today is from the traditional folk song, "'Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch."

Tropical Taste

Found most commonly near creek banks and river bottoms in the understory of rich broadleaf forests of the eastern United States, the pawpaw is a small deciduous tree whose large, droopy leaves and slender branches give it a decidedly tropical appearance. The resemblance is more than coincidental; the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is the only temperate member of the Custard Apple family (Annonaceae), which is widespread throughout the New and Old World tropics and contains many Central/South American fruits now popular in the tropics and subtropics: the guanabana, cherimoya, sugar apple, and atemoya. For people who are familiar with the annonas (as they are collectively known), the pawpaw bears a notable similarity in sweetness, aroma, consistency, flavor, and seeds.

Modern Varieties

Since 1900, numerous individuals, including the renowned botanist David Fairchild, have collected superior clones from the wild and worked at improving the pawpaw. Roughly a dozen named varieties exist; most notable are Sunflower, Overleese, and Taytwo. For years, the focus of pawpaw interest has been among the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association and the North American Fruit Explorers. These organizations have been vital to perpetuating pawpaw interest and activity; without their persistence and enthusiasm, the pawpaw would be no more advanced now than it was in 1916. Research by both professionals and amateurs is underway to improve pawpaw cultural practices, plant breeding, flavor analysis, and tissue culture, as well as culinary and medical uses. With sufficient investment in research and development, the pawpaw will become a domesticated species and modern fruit crop.

Historical tidbits

" We can never realize what a great blessing the pawpaw was to the first settlers while they were clearing the great natural forest and preparing to build cabins. Planting fruit trees was rather an experiment for a number of years. The pawpaws, and a few other wild fruits of less value, were all their dependence so far as fruit is concerned. Well do I remember sixty or more years ago my father would take his gun and basket and go to the woods and return in the evening loaded with pawpaws, young squirrels and sometimes mushrooms of which he was very fond. But there will never be a recurrence of those days which were the happiest of my life."

- James A. Little, The Paw Paw, 1905.

"Of all the important native fruits of the United States, the least known is probably the pawpaw, which grows in the forests from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic, west to Oklahoma and as far north as New York and Michigan... Its creamy pulp is of exquisite texture in the mouth, while its distinctive flavor and aroma, often too pungent, give it a decided individuality... The drawbacks of the fruit are largely of a commercial character. They are drawbacks which can probably be removed by intelligent breeding. With this idea a number of individuals have undertaken during the last few years to improve the pawpaw; but there is still plenty of room for work, and the American Genetics Association therefore feels the desirability of calling attention to the pawpaw, and pointing out the attractiveness of the problem it offers."

- Announcement of the contest for the best pawpaws in The Journal of Heredity, 1916

Also see the KSU Pawpaw Information Home Page