Southern Pawpaw

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a slow grower, like our dwarf pawpaw, about a foot a year. It is a low shrub, usually 1 to 2 feet tall and 1 to 1 1/2 feet wide, with one or a few arching shoots from a long taproot.

Maroon flowers, sometimes mixed with white or green, open from March into June. They have a fetid smell. The fruit is a yellow-green berry 1 to 2 inches long, and gopher tortoises, birds and small mammals eat it.

It grows on the sandy peat of pine-palmetto flats, in savannas and low sandy fields, and on low sand ridges, in central and northern Florida and southeast Georgia. It is frequent in central Florida.

How to grow Southern Pawpaw

Southern pawpaw needs full sun and a sandy soil, acid to neutral, that stays somewhat moist but never floods. It takes fairly long dry spells once rooted, but not salt water or salt spray. Set plants 2 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.

Other pawpaws studied cannot pollinate their own flowers, so plant two or more from different seed for fruit. Flies and beetles pollinate the flowers. It crosses with slimleaf and netted pawpaws where they grow together. Zebra swallowtail and pawpaw sphinx caterpillars feed on the leaves.