Last week, Del. Liz Guzman, D-Prince William County, introduced House Bill 415 to designate pawpaw as Virginia’s state fruit.
“This bill is about putting pawpaws back into public consciousness. That’s the first step to get them back into the pantries of Virginians,” said Del. Joshua Cole, D-Fredericksburg, who co-patroned the bill.
Pawpaws are a green-skinned, jelly-bean-shaped fruit with a yellow custardy center that’s packed with nutrients and tastes like a combination of mango, apple, banana and pina colada. Pawpaws predate humans and have been growing in Virginia for thousands, even millions, of years.
“Helping to reintroduce Virginians to a fruit that they could grow in their own backyard is important both as a matter of pride and of ecology,” said Cole.
Lindsay Lindberg is raising 10 pawpaw trees and sells pawpaw ice cream in the fall at the Blacksburg farmer’s market. “Pawpaw trees are so historically significant to Virginia, feeding Native Americans, settlers and wildlife. They also have a positive impact on our streams by preventing erosion. There are other fruits native to Virginia, but none of them really stand out to me quite like the pawpaw.”
However, pawpaws have not been commercially successful in grocery stores for several reasons. First, not all pawpaw trees produce fruit. Second, the trees that do produce fruit have a brief growing season — only two or three weeks in the autumn. Third, the fruit that is produced has only about 24 hours of optimal ripeness and is easy to bruise, making it hard to ship.
“Lots of the [non-pawpaw] fruit we eat is shipped in, but we have a chance at being a producer right here at home. … With the amount of pawpaws we could grow here, it should be as easy to find as any other fruit in our state, whether that’s at a farmer’s market, a neighborhood convenience store, or at a chain like Walmart or Target,” said Cole.
HB 415 is Guzman’s second attempt to designate pawpaw as the official state fruit. The pawpaw bill she introduced in 2020 was carried over to 2021, but failed to pass.
Cole is confident that the current bill will pass with widespread support. “Quite honestly, our biggest hurdle will likely be introducing more members to the existence of this fruit!” he said.
If HB 415 bill passes, pawpaw will be added to the Code of Virginia’s list of 40 official state emblems including milk (the official beverage), Chesapecten jeffersonius (the official fossil), and the Virginia Big-eared bat (the official bat).
Danille Christensen, associate professor of public humanities at Virginia Tech, explained the power of being named an official emblem. The increased value “could be parlayed into protection for habitat or inclusion in school curriculum, and it definitely ties into marketing for heritage tourism and ecotourism. On the other hand, increasing the visibility of a native, ephemeral fruit might also negatively impact existing populations and natural systems,” she said.
Indigenous nations used pawpaw trees for food, rope, crafts and medicine long before George Washington served chilled pawpaw halves at Mount Vernon. The scientific name of pawpaw is Asimina triloba, with the Asimina derived from an Algonquin word.
“If the bill does pass,” said Christensen, “I’d love to see the designation used to highlight Indigenous history in Virginia, since many of Virginia’s existing state designations center around colonial/antebellum power or the image of the hardy Anglo-Saxon mountaineer.”
Pawpaw is already the official native fruit of Ohio and official fruit tree of Missouri. And pawpaw is the only source of food in Virginia for the caterpillars of the zebra swallowtail — Tennessee’s official butterfly.