upat5 said:Paw paws EVERYWHERE! Kind of sad actually because though they are native and I love them and I'd never hurt a leaf on their branches....they crowd/shade other plants out. There wouldn't be so many if it weren't for the deer. The deer won't touch paw paws but they mow everything else down leaving the paw paws to take more than their fair share.
Not much will eat pawpaws (
Asimina triloba). Great plant BTW. They contain a number of annonaceous acetogenins which make them distasteful. Many of those same compounds are under study for everything from pesticides to anti-cancer properties. One company used to pay people (not a lot BTW) for dried pawpaw twigs for use in making safe anti-lice shampoo. While it was effective, the company no longer makes it though recipes are online. I digress, the various parts of the tree taste horrible. Also, due to their underground spread, you get clonal groups...even thickets. Since they need an outside pollen source to set fruit, and are notoriously poorly pollinated, that doesn't help fruit-set much.
