Botanical atlas

Pawpaw

Asimina triloba

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.

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.