Pawpaw

Asimina triloba

Also known as Common Pawpaw, Custard Apple, Poor Man's Banana, Hoosier Banana, False Banana

At a glance

Family

Annonaceae (custard-apple family)

Type

Small understory fruit tree

Parts used

Ripe fruit (culinary only)

Size

15 to 25 feet tall, often growing in patch-forming clonal thickets

Bloom

Early to mid spring, before the leaves fully open

Habitat

Rich, moist bottomland woods and stream banks across the eastern and midwestern United States

Acquisition

Grow or buy

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Rich source of vitamin C

Provides potassium and manganese

Contains fiber and antioxidants

Prized as a native forage fruit

Traditional uses

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Pawpaw is the largest fruit native to North America, and it has fed people along its range for a very long time. Indigenous nations including the Cherokee, Iroquois, and many others gathered, ate, and dried pawpaw fruit, wove rope and fishing nets from the tree's fibrous inner bark, and helped spread the species by carrying its seeds along travel routes. Early European settlers and figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were fond of the fruit, and it fed families and foragers through long American seasons before refrigerated shipping made tropical fruit common. Unlike most entries in an herbal cabinet, pawpaw's traditional value was almost entirely culinary rather than medicinal, a beloved wild dessert fruit rather than a remedy.

How to grow & use it

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Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Vanilla
✦Cinnamon
✦Nutmeg

Substitutes

✦Ripe banana
✦Mango

Choose it when

“You want a taste of the wild American understory, custardy, tropical, and utterly unlike anything on a grocery shelf.”

Did you know?

Pawpaw seeds are believed to have been carried and dispersed across eastern North America partly by now-extinct Ice Age megafauna like giant ground sloths and mastodons, which may explain why the tree produces such an unusually large, rich fruit for its modest size.

Safety

The ripe fruit is a safe, well-loved food, though some people get an allergic reaction to it, with itching or swelling around the mouth. The seeds, twigs, bark, and leaves contain neurotoxic compounds and should never be eaten, chewed, or brewed. Handling the leaves or fruit skin can also irritate sensitive skin.