Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
The largest native fruit in North America. Very few people in Illinois have tasted one.
The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to North America.1 It grows wild from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, including the creek bottoms and shaded woodlands of Northern Illinois,2 and produces oblong, greenish-yellow fruits with a flavor most people compare to banana, mango, and vanilla custard.1
Legend has it George Washington chilled pawpaws in spring water and ate them by the spoonful; we have a direct record that he grew them at Mount Vernon.4 Lewis & Clark subsisted on them when their provisions ran out in September 1806.3
In the two centuries since, the country changed. Forests were cleared, the modern food system rewarded fruit that could ship, and suburbs replaced woodlands. The pawpaw quietly fell out of the American diet.8
Its short shelf life kept it out of grocery stores.7 Its sole pollinators are flies and beetles.5 Its leaves are the only food zebra swallowtail caterpillars will eat.6 It is, in every sense, a fruit of place. That is exactly why it's worth bringing back.
Pawpaw Foundation
Pawpaw
Asimina triloba · also: custard apple, Hoosier banana, prairie banana.126
- Family
- Annonaceae (custard apples; its closest cousins are tropical)
- Native range
- Eastern U.S., Gulf Coast → southern Ontario
- Mature height
- 15–25 ft, understory tree
- Fruit
- Up to 1 lb · greenish-yellow · ripens Aug–Oct
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 5–9 (incl. Northern Illinois)
- Soil
- Rich, moist, well-drained · likes creek bottoms
- Pollinators
- Flies and beetles, not bees
- Sole host of
- Zebra swallowtail butterfly (Protographium marcellus)
- Wildlife forage
- Raccoons, opossums, foxes, black bears
- Years of cultivation
- 150+ in North America
Imagine biting into a ripe mango that somehow also tastes like banana and vanilla custard. The flesh is creamy and pudding-like, with large brown seeds that pop out easily. Best eaten fresh, straight from the tree, when the fruit gives slightly to pressure.1
Pawpaws don't ship. That's why you've never seen one in a grocery store. Three days off the tree and the fruit starts to bruise; a week and it's past its prime.7 The only way to know what a pawpaw tastes like is to find one, or grow one, yourself, or find an event like the Pawpaw Festival in Paw Paw, Illinois.
A keystone of the eastern understory, quietly holding up an entire web of life.
Sole host of the zebra swallowtail
The zebra swallowtail butterfly cannot complete its life cycle without pawpaw leaves. Where pawpaw goes, the butterfly follows. Where pawpaw is lost, the butterfly disappears.6
Understory architecture
Pawpaws thrive in dappled shade beneath oaks and hickories, spreading by root suckers to form dense clonal groves that stabilize streambanks and shade out invasives.1
Late-summer wildlife forage
Raccoons, opossums, foxes, and black bears all eat the fruit, providing critical calories in late summer before the acorns drop.1
Pawpaws are remarkably forgiving, once you know the trick.8
- 01Plant at least two genetically distinct varieties; pawpaws need cross-pollination.5
- 02Pick rich, moist, well-drained soil. Creek bottoms and shaded yards both work.
- 03Shade young trees for their first one to two summers. Direct sun scorches seedlings.
- 04Water consistently through the first establishment year, especially in late July and August.
- 05Mulch heavily to retain moisture and suppress understory competition.
- 06Wait. Pawpaws are slow. First fruit usually arrives once the tree hits about six feet, somewhere around years five to seven.8
9 sources
- Largest edible fruit native to North America; botany, taste, and cultivation history: Kentucky State University Pawpaw Program, “The Pawpaw (Asimina triloba).” KSU runs the world’s only full-time pawpaw research program and hosts the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository for the species. ↩
- Native range (Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes and southern Ontario) and USDA hardiness zones 5–9: USDA NRCS PLANTS Database, Asimina triloba profile, and the KSU Pawpaw Planting Guide. ↩
- Lewis & Clark subsisting on pawpaws when provisions ran out: Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, entry of September 18, 1806 (University of Nebraska–Lincoln). ↩
- George Washington recorded planting pawpaws at Mount Vernon in his 1785 diary: George Washington’s Mount Vernon, “Pawpaw.” The colorful tale that he chilled them in spring water and ate them by the spoonful is popular folklore with no contemporary documentation — see Colonial Williamsburg, “Forgotten Fruit” (2018) — so we share it as legend, not fact. ↩
- Pawpaw flowers are self-incompatible (they require cross-pollination from a genetically distinct tree) and are pollinated by flies and beetles rather than bees: KSU Pawpaw Program; Cornell Small Farms, “Pawpaw — A Tropical Fruit for Temperate Climates.” ↩
- The pawpaw genus Asimina is the sole larval host of the zebra swallowtail, Protographium marcellus (formerly Eurytides marcellus): University of Florida / IFAS Featured Creatures, EENY-58, “Zebra Swallowtail.” ↩
- Short shelf life and fragility keep pawpaws out of commercial grocery distribution: Cornell Small Farms / NCAT ATTRA, “Pawpaw — A Tropical Fruit for Temperate Climates.” ↩
- Time to first fruit and the broader history of pawpaw cultivation: KSU Pawpaw Planting Guide; and Andrew Moore, Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit (Chelsea Green, 2015). ↩
- The historical monograph shown in Plate 1: James A. Little, The Pawpaw (Asimina triloba): Some Reasons Why It Has Not Been Cultivated, Directions How to Propagate It, Etc. (Clayton, Ind.: O. G. Swindler, 1905), digitized by the Internet Archive. ↩