Is this a pawpaw or American persimmon?

[Perplexed]

Found this growing understory on land.

[Triloba Tracker]

Congratulations- you’ve found a pawpaw!
The leaves when torn/crushed should have a strong smell like a bell pepper.

[Perplexed]

Good to know it’s a pawpaw. Haven’t had pawpaw fruit before and would like to see how it is. Maybe there is a larger tree around it?

[Triloba Tracker]

Good to know it’s a pawpaw. Haven’t had pawpaw fruit before and would like to see how it is. Maybe there is a larger tree around it?

In the forest understory, Pawpaws usually manifest in clonal “patches,” so there’s a good chance there are more nearby. Though depending on the history of the area in terms of disturbance, deforestation, etc there may not be any others.

In the woods it’s often common to not find fruit, for several reasons. Often you’ll need to find an old, large patch of pawpaws in order to find fruit.

In Georgia I would start to look for ripe fruit in early August to be sure not to miss it.

[Jaboticaba45]

Interestingly enough, I found a patch of about 15 pawpaws but not one had a fruit even though they were pretty big.

[Triloba Tracker]

Interestingly enough, I found a patch of about 15 pawpaws but not one had a fruit even though they were pretty big.

Yeah, very common situation- so sad because it seems like such a waste!

[Triloba Tracker]

I’ll add that the large patch near me, which is an anomaly in that it usually has a good bit of fruit, seems to have very little this year Probably due to hard freeze in April followed by 2 frosts in May.

[W.]

The pawpaw tree in my yard had over 200 flowers, most of which were pollinated by insects (I did not have time to hand pollinate and saw that the tree was covered in beetles and flies) and set fruit. The late freeze caused the tree to drop all its fruit. I doubt there will be any significant amount of pawpaw fruits in the Southeast (possibly anywhere) this year.

[Triloba Tracker]

The pawpaw tree in my yard had over 200 flowers, most of which were pollinated by insects (I did not have time to hand pollinate and saw that the tree was covered in beetles and flies) and set fruit. The late freeze caused the tree to drop all its fruit. I doubt there will be any significant amount of pawpaw fruits in the Southeast (possibly anywhere) this year.

Sorry to hear that!
You are very right though - not a good year for pawpaws down here

[Tropical Bay Area]

Found this growing understory on land.

Pretty pawpaw!

[Francis_Eric]

Pawpaw Keep in  mind The plant that actually looks similar to pawpaw is Buckeye
This is if your looking from a distance to find trees could throw you off.

(if link doesn't work) calphotos buckeye  aesculus glabra
https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-lifeform=any&rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=aesculus+glabra&rel-namesoup=matchphrase&where-namesoup=&rel-location=matchphrase&where-location=&rel-county=eq&where-county=any&rel-state=eq&where-state=any&rel-country=eq&where-country=any&where-collectn=any&rel-photographer=contains&where-photographer=&rel-kwid=equals&where-kwid=&max_rows=24

https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0107+0005

like Asimina tracker said the leaves have a bell pepper odor
Can be tricky from a distance tree bark looks different as well
Of coarse pawpaw leaves are not opposite of each other like buckeye , but pawpaw leaves are alternating.

As far as Persimmon goes from a distance look for Alligator Bark
younger tree
(I noticed from a distance some trees I thought were persimmon
actually some type of hickory nut from a distance when I saw them on the forest floor )
https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+1016+0287

[Tropical Bay Area]

Pawpaw