Netted pawpaw

Description

A medium size shrub up to 5-6 ft tall with succulent-looking narrow leaves and delicately fragrant creme flowers attracting bees, butterflies and other incects. Fragrance is honey-like. Flowers are 2-3" wide and have unusual shape. Pawpaw flowers are strange, nodding structures; the netted pawpaw has one of the prettier blooms. The flower is trimerous. The stamens are tightly packed forming a solid hemisphere of anthers surrounding the receptacle. Three or more stigmas emerge from the center of the anthers. The flowers are ready for pollination before the anthers shed their pollen. This ensures that the flowers are cross-pollinated; pollen must come from an older flower, preferably on a different plant. This species can be found in dry areas that get swampy for a few months during rainy summer season. Blooms in spring. Unlike other members of the Annonaceae, the pawpaws are found outside of the tropics.