Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Woolly Pawpaw

Asimina incana

Also called polecat-bush, Asimina speciosa.

A Florida and Georgia pawpaw of sandhills and old fields, with soft woolly leaves, creamy white flowers in spring and edible fruit.

Showy flowersEdibleWildlife valueDrought tolerant

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 4–6 ft
USDA zones: 8–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, dry uplands, old fields and edges
Native range: Florida and Georgia See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Woolly pawpaw is a stiff, much-branched shrub of longleaf pine and turkey oak sandhills, pine flatwoods, old fields and pastures in southeast Georgia and north and central Florida. Its young shoots and leaves are thick with soft, pale hairs. Creamy white flowers open along last year's twigs in spring. Sources disagree on their scent, which some call fragrant and others liken to rotting meat. Plant it in a sunny, sandy bed or a sandhill garden, where zebra swallowtail caterpillars and fruit-eating birds can find it.

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 stiff, much-branched shrub 4 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide. Its leaves, 2 to 3 inches long, and its young stems are thick with short, soft, pale hairs.

Creamy white flowers open from March into June, one to four together along last year's twigs. The fruit is a cylindrical berry up to 3 inches long that turns from light green to dark brown as it ripens, from summer into fall. It is edible but not always tasty, and birds and small mammals eat most of it.

It grows on sands and sandy loams in longleaf pine and turkey oak sandhills, pine flatwoods, scrubby oak ridges, old fields and pastures, from southeast Georgia into north and central Florida.

How to grow Woolly Pawpaw

Woolly pawpaw needs full sun or part sun and deep, well-drained sand, acid to neutral. It takes very long dry spells once rooted, but not salt water or salt spray. Set plants 5 feet apart, and keep each one 3 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. Blowflies and carrion beetles are its main pollinators. It crosses with slimleaf and netted pawpaws, and its hybrids with slimleaf pawpaw have showy pink or red centers. Zebra swallowtail and pawpaw sphinx caterpillars feed on the leaves.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (8)

Plan the planting