PAPAW (Asimina triloba, Dunal). N to 30 feet Slender, spreading tree or shrub, with grooved branches. and sap with heavy, disagreeable odor. Bark thin, brown blotched with gray, cut by a network of shallow grooves with warty outgrowths between. Used for fishnets. Wood light, coarse-grained, soft, worthless. Leaves clustered near ends of twigs, simple, obovate, tapering to base, acute, entire margin, thin, bright green, paler beneath, 8 to 12 inches long, half as wide, petiole short. Flowers in April, solitary in
axils of last year's leaves, purple, ill-smelling, cup-shaped, with 3 widest petals forming a saucer. Fruit banana-like, but rather shapeless; skin brown, wrinkled, covers yellow, sweet, insipid flesh which surrounds large, hard seeds. Dist.: Rich bottom land, New York to Michigan and Kansas; south to Florida and Texas; common in Mississippi Valley.