Identifying Characteristics
| Habitat: | Pawpaw grows in the well-drained sandy soil ridges of sandhills, longleaf pine-scrub oak, old fields, and pine flatwoods where little or no saw palmetto occurs. |
| Size/Form: | Pawpaw is a shrub that can reach heights of 5' but is generally about 2' tall. |
| Stem: | The grayish-brown stem may be covered by a thin, fuzz layer. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, deciduous, and 1½" to 4" long by ¾" to 2¼" wide. The narrow elliptical shaped leaves usually have fuzzy upper surfaces while the underneath surface is veiny and also fuzzy. The leaf base is wedged to rounded and the leaf tip is rounded. The leaf margin is smooth. |
| Flowers: | The flowers have outer white petals and inner cream-colored petals. |
| Fruit: | The fruit is a yellow-green berry when ripe that is oblong shaped, 3" long, and irregularly bulging. |