![]() ![]() ![]() The pawpaw is considered an evolutionary anachronism, where a now-extinct evolutionary partner, such as a Pleistocene megafauna species, formerly consumed the fruit and assisted in seed dispersal. Larvae of the zebra swallowtail butterfly feed exclusively on young leaves of the various pawpaw species, but never occur in great numbers on the plants. The leaves, twigs, and bark of the common pawpaw tree contain natural insecticides known as acetogenins. Pawpaw leaves and twigs are seldom consumed by rabbits or deer. Pawpaw fruit may be eaten by foxes, opossums, squirrels, and raccoons. Because of difficult pollination, some believe the flowers are self-incompatible. Other insects that are attracted to pawpaw plants include scavenging fruit flies, carrion flies and beetles. The flowers produce an odor similar to that of rotting meat to attract blowflies or carrion beetles for cross pollination. Pawpaw flowers are insect- pollinated, but fruit production is limited since few if any pollinators are attracted to the flower's faint, or sometimes nonexistent scent. The common pawpaw is native to shady, rich bottom lands, where it often forms a dense undergrowth in the forest, often appearing as a patch or thicket of individual, small, slender trees. Extreme southern Ontario, Canada, and the eastern United States from New York west to southeast Nebraska, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Asimina triloba ( L.) Dunal – common pawpaw.Asimina tetramera Small – fourpetal pawpaw.Florida and Alabama Regarded as a synonym by some authorities. Asimina spatulata (Kral) D.B.Ward – slimleaf pawpaw.Asimina parviflora ( Michx.) Dunal – smallflower pawpaw.Asimina obovata ( Willd.) Nash) ( Annona obovata Willd.) – Flag-pawpaw or Bigflower pawpaw – Florida. ![]() Endemic to Volusia county Florida ( endangered) Asimina pulchella (Small)Rehder & Dayton – white squirrel banana.Asimina manasota DeLaney – Manasota papaw native to two counties in Florida ( Manatee + Sarasota) first described in 2010 Not recognized by some authorities.Gray 1886 Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina Regarded as a synonym of A. Species and their distributions Accepted species Pawpaws are in the same plant family (Annonaceae) as the custard apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, soursop, and ylang-ylang the genus is the only member of that family not confined to the tropics. The common pawpaw is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat. Pawpaws are native to 26 states of the U.S. The genus includes the widespread common pawpaw Asimina triloba, which bears the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. It is native to eastern North America and collectively referred to as pawpaw. Asimina have large, simple leaves and large fruit. Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family Annonaceae. 1753Īsimina is a genus of small trees or shrubs described as a genus in 1763. Porcelia Persoon 1807, not Ruiz & Pavón 1794. ![]()
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