Photo: Addysgreenhouse — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 8 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Despite the common name 'dwarf pawpaw,' this is one of Florida's true pygmy pawpaws — a fire-adapted flatwoods shrub reaching only 20-30cm tall, not a significant source of edible fruit. Its small (3-4cm) yellow-green fruits are far smaller than A. triloba's and are not documented as a cultivated food crop; NatureServe rates the species G4 (apparently secure). ⚠ As with all pawpaws, eat the flesh only — skin and seeds concentrate annonacin and are not food.
- Hardiness
- Zone 8–9
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Sept–Oct
- Mature size
- Dwarf shrub 20–60 cm, resprouting from a spindle-shaped taproot after fire
- Light
- Partial to full sun
- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.0 (slightly acid)
- Environment
- Subtropical, fire-adapted flatwoods
- Native range
- Narrow Coastal Plain endemic ranging from southeastern Georgia south through peninsular Florida to Collier County — occupies pine flatwoods, wet savannas, low sandy fields and sand ridges, generally wetter sites than the other Florida 'pineland pawpaws.'
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 3–5 yrs grafted, 4–8 from seed
- Growth speed
- Slow
- Spacing
- 100 cm (39 in) apart — about 1 m² (11 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Leathery leaves 4-11cm long with rounded or blunt (occasionally notched) tips and margins rolled toward the underside — dark green and hairless above, paler below with a networked pattern of veins.
- Root system
- Distinctive spindle-shaped taproot, from which one or more shoots emerge — not a fibrous or rhizomatous system.
- Fruit description
- Small, curved, cylindrical yellow-green fruit only 3-4cm long, containing shiny brown seeds in two rows. Documented fruit-quality information for human consumption is very thin compared with A. triloba.
- Propagation
- Grown from seed or nursery-propagated stock. The plant grows from a spindle-shaped taproot, so — as with other Asimina species — it should be planted young with minimal root disturbance; bare-root transplanting of established plants is difficult.
- Pollination
- Pollinated specifically by the dark flower scarab beetle (Euphoria sepulcralis), attracted by yeasty, dimethyl-sulfide-scented flowers that mimic rotting flesh — genus-wide, Asimina relies on flies and beetles rather than bees.
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Native to well-drained, nutrient-poor sandy soils of pine flatwoods and old fields, adapted to periodic fire and drought. Needs lean, sandy, unamended soil rather than the rich, fertile ground A. triloba prefers, and is unlikely to tolerate heavy fertilizing or wet, rich sites.
How it spreads. A true dwarf shrub only 20-30cm tall, with one or more branched or unbranched shoots arising from a single spindle-shaped taproot. No rhizomatous, colony-forming or root-suckering habit is documented, unlike the thicket-forming A. triloba.
Growing tips. NatureServe ranks it G4 (apparently secure) and it is not federally listed, but it is a true Florida/Georgia Coastal Plain endemic adapted to regular fire and drought in pine flatwoods — a warm-temperate to subtropical species with no documented cold-hardiness below roughly USDA zone 8, and not suited to a cold-hardy wiki's colder zones. Its diminutive size (well under a foot tall) also makes its scale very different from A. triloba.
Grow journal
Sign in to keep a dated log of when you planted, bloomed and harvested this plant.