Pawpaw in America

The purpose of this section is to explain the origin, history, and natural-environment for the asimina triloba species of pawpaw.

Pawpaw trees were grown in plantations by American Indians prior to colonization, and the tree-population has declined since then. Indians selected good fruit-producing trees over thousands of years and many of the pawpaw-trees found in nature originated from Indian-stock.

Indians distributed pawpaw trees over a large geographic-area in eastern North America. The USDA plant database shows the extent of asimina triloba (pawpaw) in North America: