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Plant Profile: Pawpaw


Excerpt from Wikipedia: Pawpaw are small trees or shrubs that were first described as a genus in 1763. Pawpaw is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family, Annonaceae.


Pawpaw has large simple leaves and large fruit. It is native to eastern North America, a genus that includes the widespread common pawpaw, which bears the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. Pawpaws are native to 26 states of the U.S. and to Ontario in Canada. Pawpaw can be found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat.


Size: 6 ½ – 39 ½ feet tall.

Uses: Eaten fresh or in baked goods, pudding, ice cream, salad, or liquors.

Companions: Beans, nasturtiums, bananas, sweet potato, dogwood, ferns, wild geranium, legumes, and shade tolerant natives.

Habitat: Temperate fruit tree native to the eastern United States that feeds flies, beetles, foxes, opossums, squirrels, and raccoons.

Harvest: Harvest when fruit is soft like an avocado and pulls off easily from the tree and eat immediately or keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Fun Fact: It's the only temperate genus in its tropical/subtropical plant family and bears the largest native edible fruit in the United States.

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