80 CUSTAED APPLE FAMILY 



CUSTARD APPLE FAMILY (Annonaceae) 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate. Petals 6. Sepals 3. Sta- 

 mens many. Fruit pulpy. 



Pap AW (Genus Asimina) 



Showy papaw flowers ornament open pinelands from 

 February to June. These low shrubs are easily identified, 

 as the leaves and bark when bruised have a strong and 

 peculiar odor, and the flowers, with their odd form of 

 three large, spreading petals, and three smaller, converg- 

 ing ones, are unlike others. The way these flowers grow 

 and grow — and grow — recalls eastern tales of bottled genii. 

 In early winter the stems of our common A. reticulata are 

 bare ; in January brown, knoblike buds start, soon swelling 

 and unfolding in crinkled petals that daily increase in 

 size until in banners of creamy white they droop below 

 the budding leaves. 



In several species the flowers appear before the leaves; 

 in others the leaves appear first. A. reticulata, whose 

 inner petals are usually banded with purple at the base, 

 is one of the former, and is widely distributed through 

 the peninsula. A. pygmaea, one of the latter, is interest- 

 ing on account of the unusual coloring of its flowers, which 

 apparently start out to be white, but end in being dark 

 purple, and between opening and withering show astonish- 

 ing variety : opening buds are greenish ; partly opened 

 flowers may be cream-color streaked with purple; fully 

 opened flowers on the same stem may show outer petals 

 of white contrasting with inner petals of purple, while 

 older flowers are often purple throughout. 



Although the blossoming season of our papaws is from 

 midwinter to summer they occasionally bloom at other 

 times, and it is not uncommon to find A. angustifolia 

 blossoming in October near Gainesville, and other species 



