The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to North America, and it grows wild in the woods of Indiana — which is how it earned the nickname Indiana banana. Its soft flesh tastes like a blend of banana, mango, and vanilla custard.
It is a deeply American fruit. According to the Smithsonian, pawpaws long sustained Native peoples, who ate them fresh, cooked them into sauces, and dried them for winter. They were said to be a favorite of Daniel Boone, were planted by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and kept the Lewis and Clark expedition fed in 1806 when other provisions ran short.
So why are ripe pawpaws so hard to come by? The trees are particular about pairing off. A pawpaw cannot pollinate itself, and a wild patch is often a single plant — many trunks joined underground by one root system — so its blossoms have no genetically different mate close enough to fertilize them.
It does not help that the flowers are pollinated not by busy bees but by flies and beetles, which show little enthusiasm. According to the National Park Service, the share of flowers that become fruit is famously small.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
