Paw Paws?

Have you ever heard of Paw Paws?

My friend Rachel has recently introduced us to these mysterious little fruits. Apparently you can shake a tree and have the paw paws fall out, which her kids enjoy doing.

Jack, Poppy and I searched our property to no avail, so she kindly dropped off a bag for us.

I immediately could smell the sweet scent of the bag and had Jack try one with me. Last night after dinner I had two for dessert. This morning I'm doing some research and thought I'd share for anyone like me that had never heard of them.

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Pawpaw: Small Tree, Big Impact Antietam National Battlefield, Baltimore-Washington Parkway, Catoctin Mountain Park, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Civil War Defenses of Washington more »

By Elizabeth Matthews, Botanist for National Capital Region Network, Inventory & Monitoring program Pawpaw trees in the forest understoryNPSWith leaves and branches that deer avoid, and fruit that is loved by all, the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a fascinating native tree. It’s the only local member of a large, mainly-tropical plant family (Annonaceae), and produces the largest edible fruit native to North America. Despite being a small, understory tree, unlikely to ever grow into the forest canopy, pawpaw is the most frequently observed sapling in forest monitoring plots tracked by the National Capital Region Network Inventory & Monitoring program (NCRN I&M) . What do we know about the ecology of pawpaw in our region, and what could its dominance mean for our future forests?

Read more at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/pawpaw.htm