My new yard in Virginia Beach, Va., is extra special _ it features a large, large pawpaw tree.
For years, I planned to plant one but just never got around to it. The full-grown, fruit-heavy pawpaw on the edge of the woods that borders our yard is an extra bonus.
Helen Hamilton's profile of the native plant sent me scurrying to confirm what I had suspected _ this small tree, or large shrub, features unusual three-season beauty.
"Flowers come first in this plant that blooms from March through May," says Hamilton, past president of the John Clayton Chapter, Virginia Native Plant Society, and retired biology teacher living in Williamsburg, Va. (Learn more about the native plant society at www.vnps.org.)
"Hanging upside-down on the twigs sometimes during leaf emergences, these unusual blossoms are maroon and bell-like."
Pawpaw, or Asimina triloba, is ignored by bees because there are both male and female parts on each flower, so no cross pollination is needed.
Next comes the plant's unusual fruit, which is almost four inches long, green at first, then yellow-brown when ripe, with a sweet, creamy pulp, according to Hamilton.
"Oblong and stubby, these fruits look a little like bananas and are delicious when eaten raw or made into ice cream or pies," she says.
Pawpaw is native to every county in Virginia, and throughout the eastern United States, she adds. It grows in moist soils in forests, often as a smaller understory tree. The native plant can be part of a rain garden, or placed in a shrub border at the edge of woods with average water. Easy to grow, Pawpaw prefers acidic, fertile soils, well-drained with average water. Pawpaw has a long taproot and reproduces by root suckers.
"Seedlings of pawpaw are often prolific in woods where deer have browsed on other plants," Hamilton says.
"The large, lance-shaped leaves produce a foul odor when crushed and so do the twigs when they are damaged, which discourages deer. In fall, zebra swallowtails are seen hovering over the leaves, laying their eggs. Pawpaw is the only host plant for this black-and-white-striped butterfly.
Pawpaw fruits were prized by Native Americans and early settlers who made cordage and rope from the tree's fiber, continues Hamilton. The fruits can cause allergic reactions, or act as a laxative. The powdered seeds have been used to treat lice in children, and researchers have found that both the leaves and seeds have chemicals that kill insects.
ZEBRA SWALLOWTAIL
You will know a zebra swallowtail as soon as you spot it, because nothing else looks like this big butterfly with triangular wings with vertical black and white stripes, and long, sword-like tails, according to Hamilton.
"The hindwings have two deep blue spots at the base and a red spot closer to the body," she says.
"When the wings close, a bright red stripe is visible in the middle of the hindwing. Zebras that emerge in the spring are smaller with shorter tails than those that are mature in the fall. Males and females appear identical, the only definitive difference being the egg-laying activity of the female and its smaller size."
Zebras, Eurytides marcelluls, are difficult to photograph as their wings vibrate constantly while feeding on the nectar of flowers. Adrienne Frank, coordinator of the Butterfly Circles in the Williamsburg area, says they really like short tubular flowers like lantana.
In spring, zebras feed on nectars from early flowers on trees and shrubs such as blueberry, redbud and dogwood. The second flight in late summer seeks nectar on butterfly milkweed, blue vervain, ironweed and lantana.
By late summer, male zebra swallowtails search for females in moist, wooded areas where pawpaw trees grow. These small trees are the only host plant of zebras � deer dislike them, and seedlings are plentiful in woods.
Females lay a single egg on the leaf of a pawpaw, usually on the underside, according to Hamilton. After hatching, the larvae feed on pawpaw leaves, growing through several stages to an adult caterpillar that is usually hairless. Caterpillars have two color forms � the first is green with yellow and black bands, and the other is dark brown with orange and white bands. When fully grown, it transforms into a pupa to overwinter on the dried leaf of trunk of the tree. The zebras that emerge in the spring are somewhat smaller and lighter in color than the two- to four-inch summer butterflies.
