PAPAW (Asimina triloba, Dunal). 20 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, 

 hah* 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. 



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