Pawpaw

Tree #111 Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)

Walking on the  Old Forest Trail at Overton Park we immediately ran into a small grove of pawpaws. These were in fruit and one of the fallen fruits was bright yellow inside, being very ripe. 

Yellow fruit very soft and creamy looking.

Pawpaw fruit Sept. 9, 2017

These are not large trees, only a few inches in the trunk.  The leaves are large in a hand-like arrangement at the branch ends. The grove is on the trail just west of the parking lot at the bike arch entrance to the park (at Sam Cooper and East Parkway). We parked behind the gazebo and headed south on the trail.

My friend Ken likes to try unusual fruit and he has asked me if I knew where there was a pawpaw. The fruits are edible and taste like custard. I will bring him some for lunch Monday. I had been hoping to re-find another plant I had seen on an earlier walk in the Old Forest, a trifoliate orange with about two inch spines. I did not see it this trip. 

We met a couple of students taking Duane McKenna's entomology class at U of M. They had come to the park to hunt insects with a butterfly net.  We thought of them later when Susan spotted a bright red and black insect that I thought was a beetle, but trying to ID it, it seems like it might be a red velvet ant (Dasymutilla aureola pacifica) actually a wasp. see this link

A fast moving red velvet ant? running from the iPhone Sept. 9, 2017

This tree reminds me of the Jungle Book song "The Bare Necessities". There is one verse about pawpaws:

Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Well next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue?

This is not a prickly pear (I have a small one in my front yard) so it may be the "big pawpaw" mentioned.