By: Steve Roark
Volunteer Interpreter, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

You’ve likely got some age on you is you remember singing about Susie “pickin’ up pawpaws, put ‘em in her pocket, way down yonder in the Pawpaw Patch!” The Pawpaw is a curious native tree that gets attention this time of year when its fruit start to ripen. Also called a "Winter Banana" and "Custard Apple", the fruit looks like it should be growing in a tropical rain forest rather than the Appalachian Mountains. It is in fact a relative of several tropical trees in South America, and even the name "Pawpaw" is tropical in origin, being a corruption of the papaya tree to which it is not related.

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is usually found as a small tree either singly or more often in a dense group along streams and bottomland areas where the soil is deep and rich. The bark of the trunk is thin, gray to brown in color, and often marked with ash-colored blotches. The leaves are 10 to 12 inches long, paddle shaped, and give off a green-pepper smell when bruised. The tree produces a striking wine-colored flower with 3 petals in March, and bright yellow autumn leaves.

The fruit resembles a short, fat banana 3-5 inches long. They are green at first, then gradually turn nearly black when good and ripe in late September/early October. Pawpaw connoisseurs recommend one or two frosts on them before eating. They don't look particularly appetizing on the outside, but when broken open the yellow or orange flesh inside is soft, custardy, and quite tasty. The orange-colored ones are supposedly the best tasting, but be aware of possible food allergies if trying pawpaw for the first time. If you have a bumper crop of fruit the inner flesh can be whizzed up in a blender and frozen in containers or in ice cube trays. They make for an interesting popsicle. Pawpaw is also popular with several wildlife species, including the opossum, raccoon, turkey, and gray squirrel.

Pawpaw fruit made history on a couple of occasions. It is mentioned in the chronicles of DeSoto's expedition to the Mississippi valley in 1541. It is also recorded that members of the Lewis and Clark expedition were saved from a shortage of food by an abundance of pawpaws found on their return journey.

The wood of Pawpaw is soft, weak, light in weight, and of no commercial importance. Early pioneers used to grind the seed, which is poisonous, into a powder to put on the heads of children who had lice. The leaves were also thought to have insecticidal properties.