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NEWS FLASH!!!!!! The Cranbury Paw Paw tree passed its evaluation by the Paw Paw Foundation. They've requested a cutting as the next stage for determining whether it is rare enough to become its own Paw Paw variety (cultivar). If the CHA gives its permission, we'll send a cutting next spring. If it's unique enough, they'll name a Paw Paw tree species after the Cranbury tree! |
This is a very good question. If you have any suggestions or comments about this issue, send us an email. If you want to help us look for an amicable solution to this problem, let us know.
This article, by Michele Gordon, was printed in the Cranbury paper in December, 1997. You'll find interesting PawPaw recipes at the end of the article.
Cranbury has an unlikely new landmark. It's the largest of its kind in New Jersey. It's a rare specimen, in an unlikely spot, with impressive girth and unbelievable height. This landmark, my friends, may sound unreal, but actually, it's arboreal. Plain and simple, it's a wide, tall, old, rare, leaf-covered, root-growing, branch-sprouting, C02-producing, tree. A Pawpaw tree to be exact.
The Pawpaw tree is on Maplewood Avenue. This tree, according to Division of Parks and Forestry ranger Dave Johnson, is the largest of its kind in the entire state of New Jersey. So impressive is our arboresque neighbor, that it will be featured in the soon-to-be-released, "New Jersey's Biggest Trees" book. This book is produced every five or six years by the Division. This year's book is being written by Johnson and Amy Cradic.
A tree must be the largest tree of its species to makes it into the book. At 31 feet, the Cranbury Pawpaw is the largest in the state and well above the Pawpaw average mature size of 20 feet! Only 100 New Jersey trees make it into the book.
"We don't see that many. I never saw any that large or that suckered out before except on a water bank," stated Johnson. ('Suckered out' is a term used to describe the way the roots of the Pawpaw grow. More on this later). "This is pretty unique. I'd be less surprised if it was out in a wooded area or on a water bank." The nearest Pawpaws that Johnson knows of are along the riverbank in Salem County -- a much less surprising place to find them. According to EPA literature, Pawpaws grow typically in flood plains and in the understory of hardwood forests.
Johnson knows of no other Pawpaws in the area and told me that this is the farthest north he's ever seen one. He was surprised to find such a mature and large Pawpaw in an area with houses and development. "I find it strange that it's a remnant still alive - especially in an area with houses and development," said Johnson. "This is a unique situation, this tree clump shouldn't be disturbed for development purposes."
Pawpaws were once more plentiful but have been almost eradicated from New Jersey due to development. According to the PawPaw Foundation, fossils show that the Pawpaw existed millions of years before the arrival of humans and is indigenous to North America. They seem to have originated in the temperate woodlands of the eastern United States. They are the largest fruit native to North America and the only member of the Asimina triloba species to grow anywhere but the southeast. According to Johnson, "the Pawpaw is [also] the only New World tree in the tropical family of trees" It is related to the more well-known tropical fruits custard apple, Soursop, Sugar Apple, Sweetsop, Atemoya, and Cherimoya -- some of which can be found in specialty grocery stores. Pawpaws were a food staple for native Americans (the name is Arawak) who spread them to the Midwest, Canada, and the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, clumps of Pawpaws often mark the location of native American villages.
The earliest documentation of the Pawpaw dates back to De Soto's 1540 expedition in the lower Mississippi Valley when he wrote of Native American's cultivating the Pawpaw and introducing it to Europeans (Chronological history of plants, by C. Pickering, 1879). French explorers compared the taste to custard. Lewis and Clark recorded how pawpaws helped save them from starvation, "our party entirely out of provisions subsisting on poppaws. ... The party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on poppaws." (HortScience, Volume 31, Umedi L. Yadava). Pawpaw pudding (see recipe at end) was regularly served at inns and restaurants in the 1800s and the fruit was so popular at the turn of the century that it was featured in a folk song ('Way down yonder in the paw paw patch). During the depression, Pawpaws were eaten to supplement poor diets with healthy inexpensive fruit. It may have been during this time that it acquired the common names of "Indiana banana" and "poor man's banana."
Perhaps the clump of Pawpaws in Cranbury is a descendant of trees planted by the Lenape tribe. A clump of Pawpaws can flourish for years, with the younger trees replacing the old trees that die. Pawpaws grow in clusters with hundreds of offsprings to one parent. The offsprings remain small since they grow in the shadow of the parent. It is only when the parent tree dies that a younger tree gets the chance to grow strong and tall. The roots of the parent produce root suckers, or sprouts, that grow back out of the ground into new trees. The Pawpaw also procreates by dropping fruit with seeds that produce new trees.
Johnson deemed the Cranbury parent Pawpaw the biggest by measuring the trunk width and tree height. The trunk of the tree is measured approximately five feet from the ground. Johnson joked that the reason for this is so that the Division rangers don't have to bend over every time they have to measure a tree. (I couldn't really tell if he was serious or not). Cranbury's Pawpaw has a circumference of two feet three inches. This gives it a diameter of approximately nine inches. This doesn't seem wide, and it isn't by Oak standards, but it is for a Pawpaw.
Johnson also measured the size of the crown or canopy. The average crown width of the Cranbury Pawpaw is 23 feet. This measurement is not necessary for inclusion in "New Jersey's Biggest Tree" but it is a measurement required for inclusion in the national registry. By its inclusion in the New Jersey book, our Pawpaw is in the running for the national registry.
Johnson couldn't estimate the age of the tree. For most trees there is a formula that can be used to determine the age. This formula requires the application of a species growth factor. Unfortunately, the Pawpaw is so rare that it was never assigned a growth factor. According to Dr. Desmond Layne, founder of the Pawpaw Foundation, Pawpaw trees don't live very long. He's never heard of a Pawpaw being more than 50 years old. Personally, he's never seen one older than 25.
The cluster of Pawpaw trees in Cranbury has been here at least 75 years. I'm not sure how old the Maplewood Avenue parent Pawpaw is, but I didn't see any dead tree or stump indicating the existence of a previous parent. Many long-time residents of Cranbury have fond memories of the Pawpaw tree. Wayne Stahl remembers the tree in the 1920s when it was approximately 15 feet tall. He told me the tree was on Lidya Walton's land. Her son, Pete, used to cook for the boy scouts on their camping trips. To eat a pawpaw, Wayne explained, you slice off the top and squeeze the fruit out. "They're delicious!," he told me, "I'd like to eat one now." Fred Nixon remembers John Owens, of 10 Maplewood Avenue, eating the pawpaws in the early 1930s. In the "Cranbury Remembers" article in the Cranbury Press on August 22, 1997, Jean Weidner mentions the Maplewood Pawpaw. "We had a marvelous black neighbor in the back named John Owens. Our back yard faced the front of his house on Maplewod Ave. He was a very fine person. John had Pawpaw trees and he shared their fruit with us." Fred spoke with Agnes Wilson who remembers the Pawpaw tree. She recalls eating the pawpaws and said that they tasted like bananas.
Wayne and his wife Ethel used to have a Pawpaw tree on their property, but it died. He also told me about another Pawpaw on Warren Thomas' land on Cranbury Station Road He recalls the tree producing baskets of fruit. In late September he and I took a ride out there to take a look at the tree. Sadly, it's in terrible condition.
Only native or naturalized trees that are currently reproducing in our conditions are included in the book. What this means is that trees that live in controlled environments are not eligible; either are exotics. Although Johnson didn't want to give away too many secrets, he told me that at least one of the trees in the book is 23 feet wide and more than 100 feet high. The trees come from various locations all over the state and from various environments; the middle of the forest, swamps, graveyards, street-side, and churchyards. The only neighboring town with trees also in the book is Princeton. Princeton has a Paper Birch, Dawn Redwood (on Princeton University campus), and a Bur Oak. Most of the biggest trees are from the far north or far south portions of the state. The reason for this, according to Johnson, is the difference in climatic zones at the top and bottom of the state. The northern portion is home to a lot of trees that grow from that point and farther north. The souther portion of the state is home to a lot of trees that grow there and farther south. This leaves the middle of the state virtually trophy-treeless.
The Division of Parks and Forestry spends years conducting research for the book. Johnson personally visits, measures, and takes photos of all biggest tree wannabees. He rechecks trees from previous years to ensure that they haven't died or been destroyed and tracks down new tips. "Between publishings a decent amount are lost and we're trying to address this. Unfortunately, many of these trees are not in our jurisdiction," said Johnson. The book doesn't contain photos of all 100 trees; only the more interesting and more photogenic. I don't know what our Pawpaw's chances are, but it was looking quite dapper the day Johnson visited.
For each tree there is a paragraph about the species, a list of common names, a description of the origins of this name, and the location and size of the featured tree.
So now that our tree is famous, pay it a visit. It is located on the Cranbury Housing Authority (CHA) lot on Maplewood Avenue between #10 and #14. It's behind the Magnolia and has foot-long dark green leaves and most of the dark brown flowers are turning into clusters of fruit (similar to the way bananas grow). The fruit ripens in late summer and you know it's ready to eat when it's soft and it falls from the tree. According to "The Virtues of Pawpaws" from the April 1924 issue of Fruit, Garden and Home (which became Better Homes and Gardens®), "after you pick a pawpaw you should bury them in bran, oats, or beneath clean, sweet hay, there to remain until transformed into rich brownness, all rich and sweet, [it] is a rare delight."
Although the skin may have dark splotches, the fruit inside will be unblemished. One Pawpaw tree can produce bushels of fruit - enough for everyone -- but check with the CHA first.
The Pawpaw taste is a mix of banana, pineapple, and mango and contains a high level of amino acids, vitamins A and C, potassium, and other nutrients. According to the Purdue University Crop Fact Sheet, the Pawpaw is more nutritious than apples, peaches and grapes in most vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and food energy value. Unless refrigerated, it lasts only two to three days but in the fridge it lasts up to three weeks. You can substitute pawpaws for bananas in many recipes including banana bread. Because of its custardy texture, it's ideal for drink mixes, baby food, and ice cream. Because of its blendability and aroma, it is used in cosmetics and skin products. (I've included recipes at the end of the article, so read on.) According to one pawpaw expert on the Internet, "If you have tried them and don't like them, I suspect your sample was unripe, or from an inferior tree (there is much variation)." djd@cbnewsg.cb.att.com, david j daulton.
So why aren't they more popular? The tree is difficult to cultivate, slow growing, expensive (7 times as expensive as an apple tree), and it's hard to find a nursery that sells them. The fruit has many large seeds and very thin skin and therefore has a short shelf life making it unappealing to grocers. Additionally, its unusual taste and texture aren't to everyone's liking.
But despite all this the pawpaw is increasing in popularity. Better Homes and Gardens hosts a dedicated website for the Pawpaw called BH&G PawPaw Patch (http://www.bhglive.com/gardening/index.shtml). In its May 1997 issues, BH&G asked its readers if they had "gotten the pawpaw bug?" There are many reasons for this. For one, it's adaptive to most climates in the US and makes a great residential edible, fragrant, ornamental landscape tree with tropical appearance, colorful leaves, thick foliage, and slow growth. It is also highly resistant to insects and diseases. Because of this, its twigs and leaves are used to produce organic pesticides against harmful nematodes, tobacco hornworms, bean beetles, and potato bugs. Bees show no interest in Pawpaw flowers but the tree is the exclusive feeding ground for Zebra Swallowtail butterfly larvae. One of the most important reasons for the increasing popularity is that the twigs and leaves are being used in Cancer research. But don't start munching on the flora; it's toxic!
Now that you see how marvelous this tree is, don't y'all come running over here to dig up the suckers. Transplanting a Pawpaw is a tricky and rarely successful venture. Johnson told me that the Cranbury parent Pawpaw tree would never survive transplanting. Articles I've read state that it is almost impossible to transplant even a tiny young plant and it is also difficult to grow from seeds. It's true, I've tried! It's just about a miracle that Cranbury's Pawpaw has survived as long as it has, where it is. Especially since all my research has described ideal growing locations and conditions quite different than that in which our Pawpaw tree thrives.
This is one special tree.
For more information about "New Jersey's Biggest Trees," contact the Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, POB 404, Trenton, NJ 08625. "New Jersey's Biggest Trees" will be available in the Fall. You should be able to find a copy in your local library or you can purchase one directly from the Division of Parks and Forestry. A small fee is being charged for the first time this year. The fee covers the cost of the research and color photographs.
For more information about pawpaws, check out the PawPaw Foundation c/o Dr. Desmond Layne, 129 Atwood Research Facility, Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY 40601. They have a national membership with a minimal yearly fee that entitles you to their bank of pawpaw knowledge and a newsletter. Kentucky State University hosts a yearly Pawpaw Conference.
1 heaping cup of Pawpaw
2T powdered milk
Juice of one lime
1T sugar
1T light rum
crushed ice
blend on high
1C sugar
1 egg
1/4t salt
1C milk
1 1/2 C pawpaws (peeled and seeded)
Place all of the ingredients into a stew pan and stir together. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and bake until crust is done. Top it with whipped cream.
(Chicken stock may be prepared from a packaged or canned chicken soup but is best when made from scratch as in Groundnut Soup)
Blend 1 quart chicken stock
1 pint sour cream
1 12-oz pawpaw nectar
1/2 C fresh pawpaw finely chopped
Add 1T each lemon juice and rind
Add 1t salt.
Chill thoroughly.
Garnish with slices of pawpaw.
2C sugar
1 1/2 C bread flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
2C pawpaw pulp
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C melted butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. IN the center of a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: sugar, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Into a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add and whisk the eggs. Whisk until fully mixed. Whisk and mix in the other wet ingredients: pulp, milk, and butter. Pour and scrape the batter into the baking dish and bake 50 minutes. To test for doneness, slide a toothpick into the center of the pudding, and it should come out clean. Like custard, if you jiggle the pan, the center should be set.
Serving: Cut the pudding into squares, and serve it with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, hard sauce, or creme anglaise.
Cocoa, banana leaves, pawpaw tree, palm tree, palm kernel oil, purified water.
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This article, by Michele Gordon, was printed in the Cranbury Press on April 30, 1999.
Cranbury has a long and honorable history of honoring its trees. For ten years now, Cranbury has been named a "Tree City" and proudly displays signs stating this. Cranbury now has yet another arboresque reason to be proud. It is the home of the largest Paw Paw tree in the entire state of New Jersey!
New Jersey's Big Trees was published a few months ago by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Parks and Forestry. On page 4 is an entry for Asimina triloba, otherwise known as Paw Paw tree. This Paw Paw tree resides on CHA property on Maplewood Avenue between #10 and #14.
The entry in the book includes information about Paw Paw trees, the size, county, and location. A tree must be the largest tree of its species to makes it into the book. At 31 feet, the Cranbury Paw Paw is the largest in the state and well above the Paw Paw average mature size of 20 feet! Only 100 New Jersey trees made it into the book.
Paw Paws were a food staple for native Americans (the name is Arawak) who spread them to the Midwest, Canada, and the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, clumps of Paw Paws often mark the location of Native American villages. Perhaps this one marked the location of the Lenape nation village.
Many of Cranbury's long-time residents have fond memories of this Paw Paw tree - Wayne and Ethel Stahl still come by to collect and eat the fruit; Fred Nixon and Agnes Wilson remember the tree as children; and Jean Weidner mentioned the tree in the Cranbury Press 'Cranbury Remembers' series.
The Division of Parks and Forestry spends years conducting research for the book. Author David Johnson personally visited, measured, and took photos of the Paw Paw tree as well as the other trees in the book. He, and editor Amy Cradic, recheck trees from previous years to ensure that they haven't died or been destroyed. "Between publishings a decent amount are lost and we're trying to address this. Unfortunately, many of these trees are not in our jurisdiction," said Johnson.
Johnson knows of no other Paw Paws in the area and told me that this is the farthest north he's ever seen one. He was surprised to find such a mature and large Paw Paw in an area with houses and development. "I find it strange that it's a remnant still alive - especially in an area with houses and development," said Johnson. "This is a unique situation, this tree clump shouldn't be disturbed for development purposes."
Unhappily, the Cranbury Paw Paw's fate is in question. The empty .2 acre lot is owned by the CHA who may use it for affordable housing. When they purchased the land for building, the CHA had no way of knowing that it also purchased such a valuable and rare tree.
Copies of New Jersey's Big Trees can be found in the Cranbury Library and the Cranbury History Center. You can also order copies directly from the Division of Parks and Forrestry for $5.00 each (609-984-0378).
This article, by Steve Feitl, was printed in the Cranbury Press on April 30, 1999.
CRANBURY -- The life span of the Asimina triloba, more commonly known as paw paw tree, on the vacant lot on Maplewood Avenue has been long, as the tree is remembered by many of Cranbury's oldest residents.
And its life span also has been glorious, as the tree recently was recognized as the largest of its kind in the state.
However, in the near future, the paw paw tree's life spa likely will be a thing of the past.
Due to the commitmentsof Cranbury Housing Associates, a non-profit agency that constructs and operates affordable housing in the township, the tree likely will be removed to make way for affordable housing.
Neighbor Michele Gordon asked the Township Committee on Monday to consider trees as historic sites in the future, as the paw paw tree's fate may already be sealed.
Ms. Gordon presented the committee with information about the paw paw tree, as well as about measures that other towns have taken to protect trees with historic significance. The committee took the information, but offered no immediate opinion about whether it would consider a tree preservation measure.
The committee considered asking for input from the township Shade Tree Commission.
The 31-foot paw paw tree is located in the center of a single-family lot on Maplewood Avenue purchased by CHA in 1992 from a Baptist church that had owned the undeveloped land.
As part of the agreement to sell the land, the church asked the CHA to use the land for an affordable housing project.
The land was purchased with federal funds earmarked for affordable housing, and the site is included in Cranbury's affordable housing plan.
Whether or not it's a legal obligation, we certainly feel that it is our moral obligation to use that land as affordable housing," said CHA Vice President Elizabeth Silverman.
The land was purchased with federal money with the proviso of using it for affordable housing according to CHA President Mark Berkowsky. If those plans were changed, the money would have to be repaid to the government.
Mr. Berkowsky also said the project is part of the township's state-approved affordable housing plan. Each municipality in New Jersey is required to provide a certain amount of low- and moderate- income housing, and the plans are monitored and certified by the state.
The current plan in place for the land includes a four-bedroom single-family rental. Mr. Berkowsky said the plan originally called for a two-family home, but was changed after hearing the preferences of neighbors.
The project has received Historical and Preservation Advisory Committee approval, but the plans are on hold pending funding.
CHA also is moving forward on developing another Maplewood Avenue location. Four different plans for an 18- to 20-unit affordable housing development off Bennett Place will go under conceptual review at the next Planning Board meeting, scheduled for Thursday.
| Too many houses; can't we save a tree? To the editor: It's gotten so I'm afraid to pick up the paper. Last week I learned of the planned destruction of 389 beautiful acres near Cranbury Station to build 889 housing units. Let's keep cramming as many houses as we can into this area so we can make life miserable for all of us. It's a wonderful trend. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to stop it. So we sit, and we watch, frustrated and voiceless in the path of rampant development. This week I learned that Cranbury's historic paw paw tree is slated to be the next victim of our seemingly insatiable need for more housing. I understand the legal and moral issues that come with the territory in this case; your article made it very clear. but what about our moral obligation to preserve the past, particularly when that past is made up of a unique living thing? Forget about the senior residents who remember this tree from tthis treeheir childhoods in Cranbury. Forget about Wayne Stahl, my wonderful neighbor, who has been bringing me paw paws every summer I've lived here and shares with me our annual ritual of collecting and eating the delectable fruit of this tree. Forget about the tree's honored place in the book of New Jersey's Big Trees, which acknowledges its remarkable size, age, and location. Forget about the tree's connection to our history and heritage. Forget that we are a Tree City and supposedly honor our trees. And by all means let's teach our children that nothing should ever stand in the way of building more houses. We do have obligations, both legal and moral, to build affordable housing. But a house can be built in many places. Once this tree is gone, it's gone. I'd like my children to know that there are things in this world that are more important than destroying nature to build houses. The way things are going around here, it's a hard lesson to teach. Karen Wunderman (Cusworth) Cranbury |
Can't we have houses, and
trees? To the editor: Before he died on a World War I battlefield, Joyce Kilmer gained some regional prominence as a poet by reminding us of the aesthetic power of trees. In his best-known poem, he proclaims that their beauty exceeds that of any poem with which he was familiar. Trees do, indeed, enrich our lives and environment aesthetically. They also enrich it, of course, biologically, by producing oxygen. They enrich it by protecting our watersheds. They bring us blossoms in spring; they shade us and our homes in summer and glorify the shortening days of our falls. If they are old, they suggest the history they have witnessed or the history they may actually represent. They perform these many tasks admirably and selflessly. Recently on the Internet, two Press articles have appeared concerning one of these providers of enrichment, the paw paw tree on Maplewood Ave in Cranbury. I was as unaware of its uniqueness as were the CHA or most other residents of the township. The CHA, of course, is also in the business of enrichment. It labors towards providing affordable housing in what has become an increasingly "un-affordable" area of America. Even as a distant member, then, I support those goals. The need for such housing exists. As a result of the township's decision to encourage revenue-producing land use in the areas of the township near Exit 8A (see The New York Times, May 2, real-estate section), entry level and more skilled blue collar jobs should become available. These residents need and deserve homes, as do teachers, policemen, bus drivers and nurses. Yet protecting trees of all kinds, sizes, shapes, and histories for all the enrichment they bring to our lives is also highly desirable, especially as the articles seem to imply that the paw-paw tree is as healthy as it is noteworthy among tree experts. Cranbury should try to have both the tree and the housing. The township and the CHA should be encouraged to seek solutions which would fulfill Cranbury's needs for affordable housing without having to sacrifice the enrichment of the trees, maybe, in particular, this one. The property on which the tree grows backs onto the Village Park, I believe. Would it be possible to effect a land-swap of some other appropriately located township property to the CHA in return for the Maplewood Ave property being incorporated into the park? A second thought was that the house might somehow be built around the tree (though I have heard that its root system might go into shock from construction activity). "Necessity" may, indeed, be "the mother of invention." With a little more time and committed heads put together, far better solutions than either of these could develop. Such better solutions, of course, may already have been considered. Governments, at whatever near or distant level, and concerned citizens have the right and duty to build while protecting and to protect while building. Guy Butterworth Miyazaki, Japan |