Pawpaw
| Pawpaw | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Binomial nomenclature | ||||||||||||||
| Asimina triloba |
In the wild, it is an understory tree of deep, fertile bottomland soils. It ranges from Florida to Southern Ontario, and as far west as Nebraska.
| Table of contents |
|
2 History 3 Other species of pawpaw 4 See also 5 External links |
Cultivation
Although it is a delicious and nutritious fruit, it has never been cultivated on the scale of apples and peaches, primarily because it does not store or ship well. It is also difficult to transplant due to its long taproot. Cultivars are propagated by chip budding or whip grafting.
In recent years it has attracted renewed interest, particularly among organic growers as a native fruit which has few pests and does not require a lot of pesticides to cultivate.
The flowers are self incompatible, requiring cross pollination, and at least two different varieties of plants are needed as pollenizers. The flowers produce an odor similar to rotting meat to attract blowflies or carrion beetles for cross pollination. Lack of pollination is the most common cause of unfruitfulness, and growers resort to hand pollination, or to hanging chicken necks or other meat to attract pollinators.
History
The earliest documentation of pawpaws is in the 1541 report of the de Soto expedition, who found Native Americans cultivating it east of the Mississippi River. The Lewis and Clark Expedition depended and sometimes subsisted on pawpaws during their travels.
Other species of pawpaw
See also
External links