Story behind the art of Jody Williams
Botanical Art Worldwide 2025-A More Abundant Future:
Diversity in Garden, Farm, and Field
American Society of Botanical Artists at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO
Pawpaw
Asimina triloba
As a child I had heard of the pawpaw in the song “The Bare Necessities” in Disney’s animated movie The Jungle Book. Baloo the bear sings:
Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Well, next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
An odd choice of fruit for the song given that the setting of the story is in India, and both prickly pear cacti and pawpaw are native to the Americas. But then again, it is being sung by an animated sloth bear!
Years later when I moved to Missouri, I learned that pawpaws grew wild in colonies along the creek bed of our farm. The trees are native to Missouri and much of the midwestern and eastern United States. They grow in the understory and are identifiable by their long leaves and in spring by their drooping bell-shaped, maroon-colored flowers. When fully open, the flowers have a fetid aroma, which may attract pollinating carrion flies and beetles.
The Osage orange, and similarly large-fruited North American trees such as the Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), paw paw (Asimina triloba), and persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), likely coevolved with massive herbivores. These trees bear fruits that are enormous in comparison to most species, and drop them when they are unripe or just ripe, indicating that their intended consumers were likely to pick them up from the ground rather than pluck them from their branches. The Mastodon State Historic Site in Missouri contains an important archaeological and paleontological site: the Kimmswick Bone Bed. Here, scientists discovered evidence of the megafaunal American mastodon.
Pawpaws belong to the mostly tropical Annonaceae family. They bear edible fruit, the state fruit of Missouri, which grows singly or in clusters of two, three, or more. Each oblong fruit is three to six inches long and about two to three inches in diameter. The fruits have a suede-like skin that is green with a bluish hue, which makes them difficult to see against the backdrop of the forest canopy above. In early fall as they ripen, they become more yellow green and develop brown spots. When ripe, they give a bit when they are gently squeezed. And once ripe, they don’t last long because they are a favorite of deer, racoons, possums, and foxes, and also because they are very perishable. A local saying is that you know they are ripe after they fall from the tree and before they hit the ground!
Peeling away the skin of the fruit exposes a creamy yellowish custard. Its flavor is likened to a mixture of banana, pineapple, and mango. Each fruit has six to eight large seeds which I always save; I think they are beautiful. Then I use the pulp of the fruit in any recipe that calls for banana. My favorite is pawpaw bread, more like a cake really. Pawpaws would probably make a good smoothie!
Despite their fragility and short shelf-life, farmers are starting to grow paw paws commercially. Cultivars are being developed with larger fruit and fewer, smaller seeds. New cultivars continue to be developed. Most pawpaw cultivars require cross-pollination to produce fruit, so more than one cultivar is required. The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry has issued an Agroforestry in Action pamphlet Growing and Marketing Pawpaw In Missouri to assist growers.
According to WebMD, pawpaws may have cancer-fighting properties. The pawpaw contains a type of phytochemical called acetogenin in its twigs, bark, and leaves. This chemical is known to lower the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in cells; ATP can promote the growth of tumors once they've formed. This is still being investigated.
I have painted pawpaws many times and usually focus on the fruit. But for this painting I included a portion of the branch and some leaves. It was a challenge positioning the branch with its heavy fruit while I made the drawing. Every night I would wrap the branch in plastic and keep it in the refrigerator for the next day. Unripe fruits, like the ones in my painting, don’t continue to ripen once picked, and they keep for a week or more in the refrigerator. That gave me time to draw the branch from several perspectives before settling on my composition. I liked the torn leaf juxtaposed against the round shapes and the way the fruit hid behind the leaves, just like they do when you are searching for them in the woods. I found the attachments of the fruit to the branch intriguing and hadn't noticed them until I did this drawing. I think that the big leaves provide a solid base while the branch gives your eyes a reason to travel up across the rest of the painting. Composition is about having the viewer's gaze travel in a path the artist intends, pausing at the focal points and not dwelling elsewhere.
Sources:
1. https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-pawpaw-fruit
2. The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry has issued an Agroforestry In Action pamphlet Growing and Marketing Pawpaw In Missouri
3. https://www.earth.com/news/osage-orange-megafauna-extinction/
4. Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Conservationist, Volume 83, Issue 10, October 20222
5. Missouri State Parks, https://mostateparks.com/park/mastodon-state-historic-site
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