How The Paw Paw Tree Was Discovered

The paw paw tree appeared for the first time in Europe, in 1541, when a sample from it was sent there, by Hernando Desoto, a Spanish explorer that discovered it while on a trip through the Mississippi Valley.

The botanical name, Annona incarna, was given to the paw paw tree, by William Bartman, in 1776. This writer mentioned that such trees grow in Georgia and east Florida, and that its fruit, which resembles a small cucumber has a great taste, making for a delicious feast.

It still grows naturally nowadays, but in the forests of New York and New Jersey, it is believed to be endangered.

The paw paw tree is one of the best known native trees in America. Its fruit has a taste resembling that of a banana, and it is sold to its appreciative buyers in markets all over the US. This fruit can be consumed as is, baked or as filling for pies.

Because of its tasty and flavored fruit, the paw paw tree arose interest in the scientific communities and researchers from the universities in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio are trying to create variations of the tree. Many people also wish to have such trees in their orchards, just to have access to the delicious fruit.

The thing is that the paw paw tree is largely extinguished from its original habitat, and there are certain explanations for that. Peterson showed in 1991 that these trees are very sensitive to the UV light, and they cannot grow once the virgin forests where they naturally thrive are gone. Even if a forest is replanted, the paw paw trees will not grow there again.

Here are some tips when buying paw paw trees for your orchard. They need to be planted under the shade of other trees, in the beginning, until they get accustomed to the light, in several years. After that, the shade is no longer required.

You may choose to grow them in pots for their first years, but you can plant them directly in your orchard, as shown above. You will see that they will grow very little during the first year, but, after that, they will take off nicely.

The soil needed for paw paw trees must be rich and moist. Their leaves are large because they need to capture all that moist in order to grow bigger.

You can eat the paw paw tree fruit altogether with the skin, but some people prefer the pulp, because its banana like taste. The fruit has very few seeds, so it can be eaten raw with no problems.

You can buy such fruits from roadside markets, or you can buy juices, pies, cakes and other products made with them.

Not only that its fruit is tasty, but the paw paw tree is also considered to be very nice looking in your garden. They also have other benefits: the bark is used for easing scarlet fever or skin rashes, and some extracts from the tree can be used to kill insects that assault your garden.

The fruit is full with vitamins, like vitamin C, minerals magnesium, copper, zinc, iron and even proteins.

You can buy paw paw trees for your garden from Kentucky, Indiana or West Virginia. You will love having them in your garden, and you will be able to enjoy their tasty fruits.

Balva Rudick is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com

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