paw paw tree

Contractor John Thomas planted a paw paw tree on Friday, close to the cherry trees. That's his pickup in the driveway. Shortly after this shot the burlap was removed.

The paw paw is native to somewhere American. My mother planted one in about 1980 but it never bore fruit. Local people here, particularly Pennsylvania German types, think of it as a local wonder. It appears to be related to the plum. The fruit is tropical, as exotic as you can get in the temperate clines where winter freezes out fancy notions plants get in their heads at the end of a languorous summer of lavish living.

Having just listened to the audio version of the Stephen Ambroise book on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805, I learned that Lewis identified a plant west of the Mississippi as a paw paw. I'll let wikipedia sort that out for now. It is native. It is not hybrid fancy.

Notice freshely rototilled garden behind wheelbarrow--which is another wheel for my Eby Road catalog of wheels.