Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons. The Journal of the South Carolina Native Plant Society: University of Kentucky, Department of Horticulture: However, one must be careful, since these seeds can result in digestive problems if consumed. Ripe pawpaw fruit have two rows of relatively large, bean-shaped seeds. Pawpaws actually contain more potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and sulfur than apples, grapes or peaches. The fruits are very nutritious, as it is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, unsaturated fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. When fully ripe, the edible flesh becomes soft like a custard and will have a taste very similar to that of a banana. This increases dispersal of seeds so that progeny grow distant from the parent tree. Consumption of the fruit will lead to dispersal of the seeds in feces. The fruits attract birds, squirrels, and other small mammals. They are at first green in color then turn yellow then brown as they ripen in the fall. There are various names for the fruits of the pawpaw: poor man's banana, Hoosier banana, and custard apple.The fruits of the pawpaw are oblong in shape and frequently appear in clusters, with each individual fruit resembling a short, fat banana. The maroon color and "rancid meat" fragrance of the flower have evolved to attract these pollinators. Flies and beetles are the main pollinators of the pawpaw. This is an evolutionary adaptation to avoid self-pollination and lead to greater genetic variation in offspring through cross-pollination. However, the flowers are also protogynous, a term botanists use to describe when the male and female portions mature at different times. The pawpaw flower is perfect, having both male and female parts. This allows for great amplification of progeny through generations. Each flower contains several ovaries, enabling a single flower to produce several fruits. During springtime, the flowers tend to appear with or after growth of the leaves. There is a total of six petals per flower, and each flower is approximately 2 to 4 cm across. The flowers (observed in another specimen) appear as purplish-brown with a broad bell shape. The pawpaw species is monoecious, with the organs or flowers of both sexes carried on a single plant. The fruit is remarkably unsusceptible to insects and disease in comparison to other cultivated fruits, which has made the Pawpaw of interest to organic farmers as it lacks the need of pesticides. Sometimes called the "poor man's banana," the Pawpaw fruit has a blend of tropical flavors, including bananas, pineapples, and mangoes and has a custard-like consistency. The fruit of the tree, perhaps its most intriguing aspect, ripen in around September and stay ripe until winter, when it begins to soften and ferment. The leaves of the tree grow at the ends of the branches, it grows perfect flowers with six petals, produced in early spring. The Papaw is deciduous and growns as far south as northern Florida, as far north as southern Ontario, Canada, and as far west as Nebraska and Texas. Located close to Hillside Place, the Pawpaw stands (somewhat) tall in the Marsh Botanical Gardens. The Pawpaw, otherwise known as the Asimina triloba, is a small tree that bears the largest edible fruit in its native United States.
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