Asimina Prima 1216 - Pawpaw

The Asimina Prima 1216 is a vigorous and productive variety, offering beautiful green-skinned fruits with pale yellow flesh, whose texture and taste are halfway between mango and banana. This Italian-origin variety is self-fertile: a single tree is sufficient to obtain fruits even though fruiting will be more abundant in the presence of several pawpaw trees. The Pawpaw tree is a rare small tree and slow to establish but very hardy.

The Asimina triloba or Paw Paw is a small tree with tropical appearances while being perfectly adapted to temperate climates, appreciating fairly warm summers and cold winters. Fruit production begins when the plant reaches 2 to 2.50 m (7 to 8ft), around 3 to 6 years. These fruits, appearing alone or in clusters on the branches, are edible.

Pawpaws are large oval berries that can measure up to 15 cm (6in). The skin is green-yellow in colour at ripeness and contains a creamy pulp, usually yellow, dotted with large black seeds. The taste and texture of pawpaw is reminiscent of both mango and banana. The fruits are picked when ripe, when they become tender to the touch and ready to fall. The harvest extends over about twenty days, around the month of September. Once picked, the fruits can be stored for a few days at room temperature or one to two weeks in the refrigerator. Peel the fruits and remove the seeds before consuming. You can eat them fresh or make ice creams, sorbets, juices or compotes. Pawpaw is rich in vitamins A and C as well as amino acids and trace elements.

Little known, the Pawpaw tree is a shrub native to the United States and Canada and belongs to the Annonaceae family. Flower buds, rounded, appear in the axils of the leaves as early as summer and will open in the following spring, around the month of April, just before the appearance of new leaves. These are bell-shaped flowers, 5 cm (2in) in diameter, with 6 petals, purple in colour. They appear alone or in small clusters on the branches. This variety has the particularity of being self-fertile. A single plant is sufficient to obtain fruits even though fruit production will be more abundant in the presence of other pawpaw trees.

The Pawpaw tree develops a pyramidal habit and can be trained in a goblet shape to facilitate harvesting. At maturity, it can reach 5 to 10 m (16 to 33ft) in height and about 3 to 5 m (10 to 16ft) in width. In the garden, with regular pruning, this tree can grow up to 3 m (10ft) in height and 2 to 2.50 m (7 to 8ft) in width. Its growth is slow, especially during the first years as the Pawpaw tree starts by developing its root system. This small deciduous tree is very hardy, able to withstand temperatures down to -25°C (-13°F). Its leaves are alternate, rather trailing, with an elongated oval shape. Green in summer, they take on a lovely yellow hue in autumn before browning and falling.