Blowflies on the Pawpaw blossoms

I planted two pawpaw trees in my backyard last year. They're about 5 feet tall. One of them is blooming, but the other one is being lazy. I need to get a couple more this year. They're not easy to find.

Pawpaw trees have beautiful foliage and produce a large, white-fleshed, sweet pulpy fruit that's supposed to be delicious. All pawpaw sites mention the fact that pawpaw was George Washington's favorite dessert.

The pawpaw used to grow all over the Eastern US, especially the Southeast. But as our old growth forests were cut down, the pawpaw also went. Pawpaw seedlings need filtered shade to grow, and when the old forests were gone, the sunlight destroyed them!

The pawpaw is pollinated by blowflies. They flowers emit the odor of rotting meat, and the flies crawl over the flowers, picking up pollen that they then bring on to the next tree. Some growers say this method isn't reliable enough, so they hang small bags of rotten chicken parts on the branches in order to increase the number of blowflies.

When our pawpaw blossomed, the flowers didn't smell like anything at all. But they must be putting out something. There was such an impressive swarm of blowflies the other day, I took some pictures.









Here's a very extensive site about pawpaws.

Picking up paw-paws; put 'em in a basket.
Picking up paw-paws; put 'em in a basket.
Picking up paw-paws;put 'em in a basket.
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.