Drawing courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation
No, bananas aren’t native to Missouri, but the pawpaw, otherwise known as the American custard apple or Missouri (or Indiana, Hoosier, Michigan or Nebraska) banana is. These small trees with big leaves tend to grow along streams and rivers in bottomland forests. They often grow in colonies, spreading by underground suckers, so what looks like a bunch of pawpaw trees might just be one tree with many stems all connected by the same root system. They have blood-red flowers that are supposed to smell vaguely like fermenting fruit or rotting meat. Given those two features, take a guess as to what pollinates them — you’re right! — blow flies and carrion beetles. Two separate trees are necessary for pollination to occur — genetically separate, that is, not just two separate stems from the same root system. It takes all summer for the fruit to ripen — and then the chase is on!
Who eats pawpaws?
Raccoons, foxes, opossums, squirrels and various birds all enjoy the sweet, custardy flesh of pawpaws, and so do humans. The wildlife has the advantage, though. They are more likely to come across ripe pawpaws than we are, so they usually devour them before we get the chance to pick any. Foraging for pawpaws requires persistence, visiting the trees daily in hopes of getting the ripe fruit.
Why can’t I get pawpaws in the store?
They turn to mush — or in commercial-speak, they have an extremely short shelf life. Ripe pawpaws are very soft and just can’t handle being picked, boxed, shipped, and stacked on a supermarket shelf. New varieties of pawpaw trees have been developed for commercial farming, but it’s still tricky to get them to keep long enough to sell in a store. If you love the taste, your best bet is to plant two for yourself and develop your own pawpaw supply. Be prepared to share with the wildlife, though — let them take the ones that are out of reach 🙂
Ruth Park Woods pawpaws Photo by Kristin Soifer
Where are the Ruth Park Woods pawpaws?
The easiest pawpaw patch to see in Ruth Park Woods is “way down yonder,” just south of the western bridge. Over many years, this patch has spread, and it has finally become clear that there are at least two genetically distinct trees in it, because there is fruit! If you cross that bridge any time before September, look up as you face toward the golf course and see if you can spot the green kidney-bean shapes growing on the official Missouri state fruit tree.
For more information about these fascinating trees, visit https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/pawpaw
Kristin Soifer is a volunteer and summer intern with U City in Bloom’s Ruth Park Woods restoration project, and she is also a graduate student with Project Dragonfly at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and in conjunction with the Missouri Botanical Garden.
