Talk:Asimina

Wrong Identity

in Australia there are plants referred as pawpaw trees, however they are not these in this article. the fruit inside is orange, with copious seeds and air inside, the fruit grow against the trunk on female trees, and flowers appear with the leaves on male trees. whereas here with this article, its not orange, not on the trunk, and few seeds. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.185.38.194 (talk) 07:09, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Yet more fun results of the imprecision inherent in favoring common names over those of scientific ones in article titles! Read here and you may understand the situation in Australia better. After reading that, go to the Wikipedia article for Carica papaya, and see if the fruit in the picture resembles what you think of as pawpaw... Hamamelis (talk) 07:55, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Pollination

The article states that pawpaw needs 2 varieties in order to pollinate, but as I've discovered, not necessarily 2 separate plantings of trees. I bought a young grafted tree, and the rootstock used with the graft put up colony trees a short distance away. The rootstock and the graft are different genetically so the colony flowers are able to pollinate the graft's flowers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.117.159.106 (talk) 18:46, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

But when it comes to seed grown plants, is pawpaw a dioecious species? 67.105.21.234 (talk) 17:58, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Taste

I've never even seen a pawpaw but how does it taste? The mango and banana used in the description taste nothing alike. Does it taste like a combination of the two? - Marshman 17:24, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Yes, or as I think, a cross between a banana and a peach. Some also say a banana and a pineapple, but unlike pineapple it has no tartness or acidity whatever. Which is why it keeps so poorly. It's very moist and creamy. The texture is utterly without grain, unlike a any of the fruits just mentioned. Think of the smoothness of avacado, but juicer. — Clarknova 07:19, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I live in NYC. I know that the pawpaw can grow in New York but I haven't the slightest idea how to get my hands on a it (looking to eat it.) Tell me, is it possible to get some to eat come spring? shadowcat60 07:19, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Just want to say that on a walk from Riverbend Park in Great Falls VA to Great Falls National Park in recently, I came upon several dropprings of pawpaw fruit. Seems the trees were quite profuse in that area, so anyone around here can experience the fruit in any way they like.

Further information

I have read that the Paw paw was widely cultivated by Native Americans throughout the Northeastern United States and up into Canada, and produces the largest edible fruit native to North America. There is a town of Paw Paw in West Virginia and a tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal called the Paw paw tunnel that are both named after the fruit, apparently. There are many historic patches of Paw paw trees in Maryland on the grounds of historic buildings; I do not know how old these trees are, but it is interesting. I have also read that some grocery stores sell them, but I have never encountered one in a grocery store yet. --Filll 19:43, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

green when ripe

From the article: it is green when unripe, maturing to yellow or brown.

This statement isn't exactly true. The wild ones I have found stay green when ripe. You can see in the photo of the pawpaw cut open that the skin is green. The photo of the pawpaws in the tree could be ready to fall. After they lay on the ground for awhile they turn dark. The way to tell they are ripe is when they start to get soft. Its only a problem if you pick them off the tree. I'll try to find a source to back me up on this.-Crunchy Numbers 05:49, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

In Pursuit of the Elusive Pawpaw

There was a nice story in the Washington Post, In Pursuit of the Elusive Pawpaw that had some interesting information and some good links. ^BlankVerse 20:48, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Insecticidal

I was the one who added the thing about being able to make an insecticide out of pieces of pawpaw tree - I had found something on google saying as much, but I'm sorry after checking it now I couldn't find it again. I do also remember reading about how Native Americans used the powdered seeds to control lice (which I also added) - again I'm searching on Google and can't find it again. What I do remember reading is that there are indeed alkaloid compounds in the pawpaw that do act as an insecticide and are ethanol and methanol soluble - this was how they extracted the compounds in a study on these compounds that I had found on Google. I will check again shortly and add the citations. -EDWIN Once ripe, the pawpaw fruit is the tasty food of choice of all including but not limited to humans, opposum, raccoon, deer, turkey, mules. Many young boys grow into manhood accurately remembering regurgitating the pawpaw fruit immediately upon consumption and never knowing the tasty benefits of the ripe pawpaw fruit. Not unlike eating a little green apple prior to maturity, the consumption of any unripe fruit can be unpleasant. Diminish not the benefit of a fully ripe pawpaw fruit because of an impression gained under considerably different conditions.

The monarch butterfly is the only known insect, pest, or animal that will consume the "green" pawpaw fruit, leaves, stems, or roots. The monarch butterfly consumes milkweed and pawpaw for protection from all predators during the long annual migration to Mexico. No known insect and no known animal will consume green pawpaw leaves, twigs, or fruit. Growers of natural fruit often utilize planted and intermingled pawpaw trees to protect fruit trees from insects, pest, and animals. Crushed or blended pawpaw leaves mixed with soap are sprayed onto fruit tree blossoms prior to bloom to ward off insects. Regarding protection of humans from attack by mosquitoes, more effective than "deet" are a fist full of pawpaw leaves rubbed against the skin. (yellowcorvette4) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yellowcorvette4 (talk • contribs) 02:24, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging

This article talk page was automatically added with {{WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Food or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. The bot was instructed to tagg these articles upon consenus from WikiProject Food and drink. You can find the related request for tagging here . If you have concerns , please inform on the project talk page -- TinucherianBot (talk) 11:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

paw paw nursery rhyme

There is a nursery rhyme about a paw paw patch. I have searched everywhere but no success. PLEASE HELP??!!!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.93.102.61 (talk) 03:03, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Medicinal Use

So... Looks like this article was being used to advertise a cure for cancer. Is this Wikipedia or the National Enquirer? The website that was the source for the claim is registered to the same company as the manufacturers of the cure (Healthy Sunshine). (A WHOIS of pawpawresearch.com turns that up). Because it's not enough just to eat a pawpaw, but only to buy their 'standardized' product. Right. Unless there is independant and verifiable confirmation in reputable sources, instead of advertising websites, then this claim is about as credible as the penis enlargement pills they keep promoting in Spam E-mails. And I don't think they'd count as a reputable source, right? 118.90.99.136 (talk) 05:08, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Is this Wikipedia or the National Enquirer? It's the aggregate of how the contributors collectively build each article. Thanks for moving it in the right direction. --Kbh3^rdtalk 02:46, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for removing it. The policy on reliable sources is at WP:RS and you are right that a manufacturer's web site doesn't quality. Even if it had been a research paper, it wouldn't have justified the text as it had been written (see WP:NOTADVERTISING for example). Kingdon (talk) 01:37, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the additional info. Note, the 'enquirer' comment was simply my astonishment at the claim lasting in the article for such a long period of time, not an accusation to any editor in specific. Thanks. 118.90.3.216 (talk) 08:53, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Cultivation

Patently false: "Asimina triloba is the only larval host of the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enteredalready (talk • contribs) 06:49, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. The article Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly does mention several other Asimina hosts, and without checking the reference there (and/or others) I couldn't say whether every host is in Asimina, so I removed the word "only". Please speak up if there is any problem with the wording as I revised it. Kingdon (talk) 12:04, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Faint, sometimes odorless, but smells like rotting meat?

Ok, how can the flowers be faint, sometimes odorless, but also have a strong smell of rotting meat? Someone needs to check up on this. I've never grown or eaten pawpaws, though I have been planning to plant one for a couple of years, now. Still, rotting meat is an extremely fetid, strong odor.

Considering the blowfly is one of the primary pollinators of the pawpaw, I am inclined to believe that it does smell like rotting meat, as the article later suggests. Blowflies primarily feed on decomposing flesh and fetid flowers. Other articles, including the blowfly article, suggest this trait of the pawpaw. I recommend that the reference to faint or odorless be removed, as it appears to be inaccurate when compared to other sources. 75.163.244.110 (talk) 03:04, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Read again. The article isn't as clearly written as it should be, but it doesn't say the odor of rotting meat is 'strong'. In fact, it refers to farmers deliberatly adding to the smell by placing carrion nearby to attract the blowflies, because it is too faint on its own.

Another important point is that paw-paw (genus Asimina) is far from a singular species (see the species list), so there is variation in flower smell among them. Just more of the confusion caused by giving biota articles the title of common names over scientific ones (imo). Hamamelis (talk) 22:56, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Chaenomeles, See also

I've been unable to find a reputable source that lists "papaya" as a common name for any of the species of Chaenomeles. Some web pages are very confused, for example [1], which shows a picture of Carica papaya labelled as Chaenomeles sinensis. I would like to remove "papaya" links to and from Chaenomeles, if there are no objections.

Probably better to add a hatnote, using a phrase something like what it says in the first paragraph of this page, where it illustrates that people sometimes get certain Chaenomeles and Carica species, both called "mugua", confused (e.g. "Not to be confused with ... " (?)). Hamamelis (talk) 08:23, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Excellent detective work, thanks.Nadiatalent (talk) 14:22, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Diseases

A TV program was talking about a disease which causes the growth of pawpaws to be stunted, and the leaves to be curly. I forgot to write down the name of the disease. Does anyone know about this? John Vandenberg ^(chat) 09:24, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

A little googling mostly finds pages which say the pawpaw is not particularly prone to disease, such as [2]. Without a few more details (preferably, the name of the pathogen/disease) it might be a fair bit of hunting to try to find this. Kingdon (talk) 00:04, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Could it be papaya leaf-curl virus, said to be spread by a white fly Bemisia tabaci? Nadiatalent (talk) 12:02, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

Pawpaw (Genus) → Asimina — Move/merger of 'Pawpaw (Genus)' [previously misleadingly named "Pawpaw"] with existing near-empty redirect page 'Asimina' is desirable and appropriate as 'Asimina' is the scientific name for the pawpaw genus; note that most uses of "pawpaw" refer to Asimina triloba (which has an existing page), one of the eight species of Asimina, not to the genus collectively. Use of the scientific name for the title of the genus page, rather than an awkward common name, is in keeping with common usage for Wikipedia articles about particular genera of plants. LarryMorseDCOhio (talk) 03:26, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

• Strong support: my vote is for using the genus name as the title, and having "Pawpaw" as a disambig page, as pawpaw is also a/the trade name for Carica papaya to Australians, who must have been shaking their heads at this for ages. Hamamelis (talk) 04:32, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Discussion

• I've no strong opinion about moving the page about the genus to Asimina. However, pending the outcome of this discussion, I have move the incorrectly titled Pawpaw (Genus) back to Pawpaw. First, Pawpaw (genus) would be the correct title if that were the form of disambiguation needed. Second, this might need to be recast as a multi-page move if the suggestion is to change Pawpaw to redirect to Asimina triloba or to move that page to Pawpaw. older ≠ wiser 17:05, 15 July 2011 (UTC)