I was wondering what the hell a pawpaw is, so I looked it up on wikipedia. Wikipedia therefore claims that pawpaw is: "Asimina, the pawpaw genus, a genus of trees and shrubs native to eastern North America"
The fact that these species exist naturally on the other end of the continent (mostly at least) explains in part why I'd never heard of it. Apparently not many people have, and many of the references google comes up with can't agree on it, such as:
NPR.org: "The pawpaw is a
tropical-type fruit native to North America with a long and almost forgotten history. Thomas Jefferson once prized it, and now ..."
crfg.org: "Origin: The pawpaw is
native to the temperate woodlands of the eastern U.S. The American Indian is credited with spreading the pawpaw across the eastern ..."
slowfoodusa.org: "Though the pawpaw is generally unknown to the American public, it is the largest edible fruit native to the US. The fruit is indigenous to 26 states from northern Florida to Maine and west to Nebraska."
There's also multiple towns and lakes named Paw Paw in the U.S.
So, what the fuck does that have to do with papaya, you crazy foreigners? Apparently they're not necessarily closely related, either (although I've no trouble believing you might be successful in grafting them together or something. Plants don't give a fuck who they share a body with.) Pawpaw are
Magnoliids, papaya
Eudicots.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14906032 times)