Netted Pawpaw

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It is a low, much-branched shrub, usually 1 to 3 feet tall and up to 5, and taller than wide. Its leaves drop briefly in winter, and new ones come in February and March.

Nodding flowers 2 to 3 inches across open from December into May, most in late winter and spring. They are creamy white outside, with a broad dark purple band inside, and they have a strong, spicy scent. The fruit is a yellow-green berry 1 1/2 to 3 inches long, edible, and it ripens in spring and summer. Birds and small mammals eat it.

It grows in pine and scrubby flatwoods, scrub, sandhills and old pastures, from southeast Georgia south to Miami-Dade and Collier Counties. It is common in central Florida.

How to grow Netted Pawpaw

Netted pawpaw needs full sun or light shade and a sandy, acid soil that drains well and holds little humus. It takes short dry spells once rooted, but not flooding or salt water. Set plants 3 feet apart, and keep each one 2 feet from a wall. It is small enough to grow within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship potted. The long taproot makes moving it hard, so plant from the pot with the root ball whole, in a hole wider than the pot and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow fresh seed in fall, three quarters of an inch deep, before it dries. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 100 days first. Germination is slow, and these are the figures for pawpaws in general.

Water weekly through the first two summers. Young plants need care to settle in.

Each flower is female before it turns male and cannot pollinate itself, so plant two or more from different seed for fruit. Beetles are its commonest visitors, and flies pollinate it too. It crosses with woolly and southern pawpaws where they grow together. Zebra swallowtail and pawpaw sphinx caterpillars feed on the leaves.