Pawpaws are the only large fruit native to North America—they fed mastodons and bear-sized ground slothsmillennia ago. More recently, Native Americans ate pawpaws, and George Washington enjoyed them as a favorite dessert. Yet they are little known today.
Native to the eastern half of the United States, pawpaws area little bigger than an avocado and comparably heavy.A ripe pawpaw has an almost liquid texture with a pungent, sweet smell and a taste reminiscent of tropical fruits such as mangoes and bananas. (They’re sometimes referred to as the poor man’s banana or hillbilly mangoes.) In terms of taste, the fruit is at times celebrated, and at times belittled. Advocates praise pawpaws’ creamy, tropical taste. Agronomist E. Sturtevant described them as “too luscious for the relish of most people,” and botanist William Werthner said of their puckery flavor “only a boy can eat more than one at a time.”
In the earliest days of human society, pawpaw trees were unusually generous. Fruits and vegetables such as corn, strawberries, and carrots were small and bitter before humans tediously grafted and bred them for size and flavor. But wild pawpaws were large, and the fruit is one of the world’s most nutritious, providinga good source of potassium, several amino acids, and Vitamin C, iron, and copper. Pawpaws were a staple of many Native American diets, andLewis and Clark were content to live off them during a leg of their 1804-06 journey across America.
But while many shortcomings of apples and strawberries were bred away, a lingering characteristic of the pawpaw became a liability in the modern world: its short shelf life.The trees are only harvestable from late August to mid-September, and if kept at room temperature, the fruit ripens to the point of fermentation within three days. Pawpaws bruise easily, and the only effective way to ship them is frozen.
Research to develop pawpaws for the mass market is still in early stages, but a cult following has developed in the last 20 or so years. At Ohio’s annual Pawpaw Festival, vendors sell pawpaw ales, ice cream, and other pawpaw foods.
FAQs
The pawpaw – North America's only native tropical fruit – Land, Air & Water.
What fruit is native only to North America? ›
Pawpaws are the only large fruit native to North America—they fed mastodons and bear-sized ground sloths millennia ago. More recently, Native Americans ate pawpaws, and George Washington enjoyed them as a favorite dessert.
Which fruit is known as tropical fruit? ›
Tropical fruits are fruits that grow in tropical climates. Common examples include mango, pineapple, papaya, guava, banana, lychee, dragon fruit, and kiwi. These fruits are primarily found in tropical regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
What is the largest North American native fruit? ›
Pawpaw: North America's Largest Native Fruit.
What is an example of a tropical fruit? ›
Load up on vitamin C, help prevent medical conditions including cancer, and get your antioxidants with these tropical fruit.
- Papaya. Papayas are a favourite post-meal fruit in Asia because it aids digestion. ...
- Banana. ...
- Pineapple. ...
- Jackfruit. ...
- Mangoes. ...
- Avocado. ...
- Coconut. ...
- Starfruit.
Varieties of tropical fruit include:
- Acerola (West Indian Cherry or Barbados Cherry)
- Ackee.
- Banana.
- Barbadine (granadilla; maracujá-açu in Portuguese)
- Brazil nut.
- Breadfruit.
- Canistel.
- Carambola (star fruit or five fingers)
The short answer is that they are any fruit that grows in the regions between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, though many varieties have adapted to sub-tropical regions as well. We are going to focus on the big four in this Produce 101: Tropical Fruit–and they are mangos, papayas, and pineapples, and plantain.
What fruit is in tropical juice? ›
Description: A delicious blend of purees and juice from apples, oranges, pineapples, mangos and bananas.
What is the largest Native American fruit? ›
Pawpaw fruits are the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States (not counting gourds, which are typically considered vegetables rather than fruit for culinary purposes, although in botany they are classified as fruit).
What fruits did the Native Americans eat? ›
Muscadines, blackberries, raspberries, and many other wild berries were part of Southern Native Americans' diet. To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes of the Southeastern Indians live on today in the "soul food" eaten by both black and white Southerners.
10 Foods Native to the Americas
- Squash. As one of the “Three Sisters,” three main agricultural crops native to North America (along with beans and corn), squash varieties come in different shapes and sizes. ...
- Corn (Maize) ...
- Avocados. ...
- Peppers. ...
- Potatoes. ...
- Beans. ...
- Tomatoes. ...
- Tomatillos.
Pawpaw fruits are the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States (not counting gourds, which are typically considered vegetables rather than fruit for culinary purposes, although in botany they are classified as fruit).
What foods are indigenous to North America? ›
The most important Indigenous American crops have generally included Indian corn (or maize, from the Taíno name for the plant), beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, avocados, papayas, potatoes and chocolate.
Does paw paw fruit taste good? ›
A pawpaw's flavor is sunny, electric, and downright tropical: a riot of mango-banana-citrus that's incongruous with its temperate, deciduous forest origins. They also have a subtle kick of a yeasty, floral aftertaste a bit like unfiltered wheat beer.
What fruit did Native Americans eat? ›
Along with potatoes, many other foods—including corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, yams, peanuts, wild rice, chocolate, pineapples, avocados, papayas, pecans, strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries, to name a few, are indigenous to the Americas.
