Dwarf Pawpaw

Description

Annona pygmaea W. Bartram, Travels Carolina, 18, plate 1. 1791; Asimina secundiflora Shuttleworth ex Exell; Orchidocarpum pygmaeum (W. Bartram) Michaux; Pityothamnus pygmaeus (W. Bartram) Small; Porcelia pygmaea (W. Bartram) Persoon; Uvaria pygmaea (W. Bartram) Torrey & A. Gray Shrubs , low, 2-3(-5) dm. New shoots 1-several, sparingly branched or unbranched, arching, red-brown with sparse, appressed, red hairs, glabrate. Leaves: petiole 3-10mm. Leaf blade ascending along and above shoots, obovate or oblanceolate, rarely linear-elliptic, 4-7(-11) cm, leathery, base variously abruptly cuneate or narrowly rounded, margins revolute, apex rounded to obtuse or notched; surfaces abaxially and adaxially sparsely red-puberulent, glabrescent, abaxially pale, prominently reticulate. Inflorescences secund from axils of new shoot leaves, solitary flowers; peduncle slender, glabrate, 1.5-3(-4) cm; bracteoles 1-2, basal or 1 suprabasal, lance-oblong, less than 1cm, hairy. Flowers maroon, fetid, large; sepals ovate, 5-10 mm, glabrate; outer petals maroon or pink with maroon streaks, oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm, fleshy, margins revolute, apex spreading; inner petals erect, deep maroon, ovate-acute to lance-ovate, 1/3-2/3 length of outer petals, fleshier, base saccate, apex excurved, corrugate zone adaxially deep purple; pistils 2-5. Berries yellow-green, 3-4(-5) cm. Seeds shiny brown, ca. 1 cm. Flowering spring-early summer. Sandy peat of pine-palmetto flats, savannas, low sandy fields, and low sand ridges; 0-100 m; Fla., Ga. Asimina pygmaea hybridizes with A . longifolia var. longifolia and A . reticulata , with backcrosses introducing various heights, larger and variously paler flowers, and degrees of fragrance grading from fetid in the maroon types to progressively more fragrant in the larger-flowered swarm components.