There’s a Tropical Fruit in North America – The Remarkable Pawpaw

This week’s blog was written by Quinn, a Bucktails alum. Quinn is really curious about nature and enjoys writing about what he learns. He works with the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful campaign as a Youth Ambassador. When he is not out on the trails near his home, Quinn can be found playing drums, dancing, playing hockey, managing a VR esports team, biking, or hanging out on the couch with his two cats.

Did you know that there is a tropical fruit native to North America? The pawpaw is a remarkable fruit that can be described as a hybrid between a mango and a banana. Although not nearly as well-known as an apple or an orange, the pawpaw once played a little-known, yet important role in early American life for both native peoples and European colonizers alike.

Many Native American tribes cultivated Pawpaw trees not just for their fruit but also to make ropes out of the fibrous interior bark. The Pawpaw was an important part of Algonquian, Siouan, and Osage diets, so much so that the Shawnee even had a Pawpaw month in their calendar. The fruit was known as “assimin” or “rassimin” in Algonquin, and called “ha’simini” by the Shawnee. The fruit then caught the eye of Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, who gave it today’s more commonly known name, “pawpaw” – a name assumed to have come from being misidentified as a papaya.

Due to its poor shelf life, the product grew out of popularity as imported tropical fruits like bananas entered the picture. This shrinking consumer demand resulted in the pawpaw’s unflattering distinction as “the poor man’s banana”, seeing it slowly fade and become obsolete in American culinary and agricultural circles by the mid-18th century. However, some famous people of that time still greatly valued the fruit, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark expedition members, who enjoyed them while in season.

During the growing season, the first buds of the fruit come from a deep maroon flower that grows on the pawpaw tree. Interestingly, pawpaws are not pollinated by bees. Rather, the main pollinators are flies and beetles. Therefore, planting complementary flowers such as marigolds near the trees can help with fruit production.

Pawpaws are ripe and in season in late summer to early fall, contrary to what you might expect from a hot weather tropical fruit. The fruit then later grows in clusters from the pollinated flowers, eventually ripening and turning from yellowish-green into brown, at which point it falls from the tree. The fruit is often gobbled up by wildlife like raccoons, opossums, squirrels, deer, bears, and even birds, and the seeds are then dispersed as the animals break away the coating around the seed and allow for a new tree to cultivate.

For human consumption, unripened pawpaws can be picked because they will fully ripen off the tree. However, unlike many orchard-like fruits that are spoiled or overly ripe once falling from the branch, pawpaws found on the ground are a prime sign that they are ready to eat. In fact, one method of collecting pawpaws suggests “shaking the branch” to cause ripened pawpaws to fall for immediate collection.

Once ripe, pawpaws only last a few days, but can be refrigerated for a longer shelf life of up to a week. If you desire to keep the sweet goodness for longer, there are many pawpaw recipes for cooking and baking. In other words, it’s a fleeting fruit, but one that rewards you if you catch it at the right moment.

As for planting new trees, pawpaw seeds can be harvested, cleaned, dried, and stratified for the next growing season. Stratified is just a fancy word for tricking the seeds into thinking that they need to go into a dormant state. So once the seeds are cleaned and dried, you can arrange them flat between paper towels and put them into your freezer for 90 – 120 days until you’re ready for planting. Pawpaws start out best in tree pots so that they can develop a long tubular root, and then transplanted.

The trickiest part about growing pawpaw trees is that they do not like direct sunlight. So the best place for cultivation is under a pine tree since pawpaws have a particular affinity for acidic soil and the branches provide shade cover for juvenile trees.

While the pawpaw is a tasty treat, you must be careful when preparing this delicious fruit to avoid getting sick. While no part of the pawpaw tastes bad, many parts of it aren’t “experienced well” by your body. Namely, both the skin and seeds of a pawpaw contain a harmful neurotoxin that can cause short-term side effects of upset stomachs, diarrhea, and vomiting. Long-term exposure can also have more debilitating effects on your brain.

So the safest way to eat a pawpaw is to get it ripe, remove the seeds completely, and scoop it out of the skin with a spoon – much like eating a kiwi – making sure not to take chunks out of the skin. There has also been some research that shows it may be possible to contract long-term side effects even by eating just the pulp. So it is important to do your own research.

When looking for your next summertime culinary adventure, try this delicious little piece of forgotten North American food history! It’s probably hiding in plain sight, but with just a little social media searching, it’s probably not hard to find a neighbor who has extras in their yard and is willing to share. I know that’s what happened for me.

While I live in Franklin County, PA, I found a Maryland neighbor just 5 miles away who invited me to pick as many as I wanted! He enjoys some himself, but mostly he cultivated the trees “for the critters” in the nearby woods. So the next time you see something that seems similar to a brownish oblong mango lying under a tree, pick it up and give this unusual native fruit a try – just don’t forget to avoid eating the skin!