In July 2026, Canadian media website Be Giant published an article about the resurgence/emergence of pawpaws in Ontario, titled The quest to bring the ancient pawpaw fruit back to Ontario: An Indigenous-led movement is restoring the tropical-tasting, climate-resilient fruit tree. The author Connor Garel mentions me with regards to my project to create a participatory breeding program for pawpaws, and because I am a pawpaw ambassador of sorts I feel a responsibility to ensure that any media I am included in provides accurate information on the subject.
In my experience it is quite common to be misquoted or misrepresented in media articles. I’m willing to give the authors the benefit of doubt and assume that they are well-intentioned, and I understand how easy it is to make small mistakes. So I don’t publish this to cast shade on Connor as a writer, I’m just interested in offering a more accurate public record for the sake of public education around pawpaws.
First off, I want to give credit to Connor for doing the legwork of finding key people to interview. I love that his article both leads and concludes with Johl Whiteduck Ringuette’s work to tend a pawpaw patch in Toronto’s Forest Valley Outdoor Education Centre, and goes into detail on Johl’s broader work to integrate Indigenous foods and teachings into our local food systems via his landscaping business Miinikaan Innovation & Design. The article also gives credit to Johl’s partner Lara Mrosovsky (who happens to be an old friend of mine who used to be a Canadian representative of the Beehive Collective), as well as leading native plant educator and activist Lorraine Johnson (who I was excited to be a featured speaker alongside at last winter’s Guelph-Wellington Master Gardeners event), Carolinian Canada, Alexis Nikole (aka @theblackforager), Torrie Warner (perhaps the largest commercial grower of pawpaws in Ontario), and Paul DeCampo (a long-time change-maker in various parts of Ontario’s food and drink industries). Frankly, I’m quite honoured to be included in an article alongside all these amazing people.
Now onto what bothered me enough to write my own piece on the article. Connor writes, “Most insects that eat the tree’s toxic leaves will die, except for the zebra swallowtail caterpillar….” This gives the impression that insects are actually eating these leaves and then dying. But this isn’t the case; the compounds in pawpaw leaves mean that the vast majority of insects simply don’t eat the leaves. The same could be said for many other tree species. Few insects eat mulberry leaves (I’ve harvested from mulberries for 20+ years and never observed any insect other than tent caterpillars eating them – and of course in other countries it is the silk worm who eats them), but it is not exactly an accurate picture of reality to say “most insects that eat mulberry leaves will die.” Insects know what to eat and what not to eat, and are very good at surviving. They have, after all, been around for many millions of years before humans came on the scene.
Later in the article, in an attempt to position the pawpaw as an anti-colonial fruit (a point I agree with – and incidentally, I also see it as an anti-capitalist fruit given that commercializing it has been difficult and they are best enjoyed fresh when in abundance, ideally in the company of community), Connor writes, “When the colonists arrived, some deemed these trees to be tropical misfits, less desirable than the European species they planned to import.” Without giving a pass to the social and ecological devastation that settler colonialism brought to this land, this is an oversimplification. I actually think it is really cool to know that early settlers (just like modern-day settlers now) also ate and enjoyed pawpaws and included them in their orchards, diets, children’s songs, and their literature. Why wouldn’t they? They’re delicious, beautiful, and grow in abundance in their range.
Next, there are several points to correct here: “The stinking deciduous trees that grew in such abundance also posed a risk for the European logic of urbanization; they require the shady protection of a forest’s overstory trees.” First, it is not fair to say that the flowers stink. Their flowers smell slightly fetid when you put your nose up to them, a little like rotting meat, but this is not a strong smell. In a well-traveled laneway near my house there is a pawpaw tree that flowers abundantly (planted by Michael Schimp of Three Acre Permaculture when he lived in Guelph – thanks Michael!), but nobody walking by the tree while in full flower notices any smell. Separately, pawpaw leaves and stems emit a slightly foul odor when bruised or pruned, but I personally like the smell; it reminds me a bit of spicebush.
With regards to pawpaws requiring shade, this is only partially true. While young seedlings prefer some protection from full sun, pawpaws will produce much better crops when planted in sites with full sun. When I shared this article with Quebec’s pawpaw ambassador Vincent Renaud (the driving force behind Pawpaw Québec), he made the point that full sun sites are especially important in northern regions, in order to maximize heat and light.
Furthermore, every native tree and plant was in the way of European urbanization – pawpaws were not unique in this regard. The spread of settler society and its imported model of agriculture destroyed virtually every native ecosystem in its path. For example, more than 99% of native forests and 90% of wetlands were destroyed in southwestern Ontario over 200 years of colonialism.
Moving on, the article states that “Pawpaws… have deep root systems that prevent soil erosion and stabilize stream banks.…” Pawpaw seedlings will naturally grow a deep taproot (which has led to propagation methods like air pruning beds and tall, narrow pots), but if one is concerned with stabilizing streambanks, many species could work quite well. The source the author cites for this claim (a 2024 article in Civil Eats about pawpaws) does state that pawpaw roots can hold streambanks in place, but in fact the Civil Eats article links to its own source for this ‘holding streambanks’ claim, which is an article about a project at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania to plant pawpaw trees on their campus. The director of the university’s Freshwater Research Institute is quoted as saying “If you plant lots of them in one area it will create a solid root mass and protect the stream bank.” I’m not trying to be dismissive of the use of pawpaws in streambank restoration plantings, but I’d say that this could be said about the majority of trees and shrubs – if you plant lots of them in one area their roots will grow into a strong network of roots capable of holding soil on streambanks.
With regards to pawpaw’s flowers, the article describes that “because the flowers have female and male reproductive organs that mature asynchronously, they must be planted together so they can grow in clonal groves, linked by a single root system.” I read the article cited as a source for this sentence, and it appears to me like the author got things reversed a bit. Pawpaws definitely do not need to be planted in clonal groves linked by a single root system – indeed they should not be maintained as a single clonal grove if you want fruit. For pawpaws to set fruit, like most other fruit and nut trees, there needs to be cross-pollination between two genetically-unique trees. Not two shoots from the same organism’s roots; two separate trees with their own independent root systems. There is no need whatsoever for their roots to join into one combined root system.
As a neat aside, pawpaw flowers are termed protogynous – the pistils develop earlier than the stamens (proto ‘first’ – gynous ‘female’). Planting two or more trees close together means that there will likely be an overlap between one tree’s shedding of pollen and the other tree’s receptive pistils. Successful pollination is what leads to fertilization of the plant’s ovaries, which results in sexual reproduction, followed by fruit (which is technically the ripened ovary surrounding the new, genetically unique babies – the seeds).
Moving on: “Once the patch has been established, however, the trees don’t need much to thrive: they require little to no tillage; they’re naturally pest-repellent; and they don’t need much sunlight.” Again, pawpaws can grow and produce in shade, but they will generally produce much more fruit in full sunlight. And the phrase about tillage is a bit out of place, as tillage is uncommon when growing any fruit or nut tree. This phrase comes from the above Civil Eats article, which was making a statement about perennial crops in general – i.e. farming perennials like trees and shrubs does not require a field to be worked/tilled like farming annual crops, which generally see farmers tilling their fields each year to prepare for new plantings or incorporate cover crops. This is why I am drawn to perennial agriculture systems like orchards, because of their potential benefits for soil health and carbon sequestration.
When the articles comes to mention me, I am referred to as “urban orchardist” Matt Soltys, even though I am not a generic city-dwelling orchardist; my business is actually called The Urban Orchardist. I suppose I see it as a strange oversight and lost opportunity that while the author linked to the website of everyone else mentioned in the article, there was no mention of my business and no link to my website.
In conclusion, I do think pawpaws are very special – I have after all dedicated a masters degree to their study, and I have organized an annual Pawpaw Fest since 2021 – but I do not think they are uniquely special for requiring less tillage, stabilizing streambanks, impeding European colonization, or resisting insect herbivory. I worry that left alone, the article can contribute to a sense of pawpaws being a trendy, mysterious super fruit that can too easily be taken advantage of by people trying to cash in these allegedly rare features. Pawpaws are cool, but so are countless other tree species we should be integrating in our landscapes, diets, cultures, and economies – persimmons, mulberries, pecans, plums, chestnuts, cherries, quince, medlar, goumi, peaches, pears, haskaps, and countless more.
Thanks again to Connor Garel and Be Giant for taking on this article, and for including me in it. I hope I've been clear that I'm grateful for your work, and the purpose of this piece is to correct some misperceptions and contribute to greater scientific literacy surrounding pawpaws.