Parthenon Pawpaw

A windfall pawpaw yellow, overripe, and nibbled by ants is still a pawpaw.

I felt guilty taking these from Centennial Park, and within sight of the Parthenon, but they’d fallen and they couldn’t get up.
No foraging allowed in a Metro park.

A homeless man sitting in a swing watched me. The couples who walked past did not.

These pawpaws are from a cultivar, not my beloved redneck species in the woods, and I was curious if I’d see a difference in percentage of seed to pulp and in number of seeds.

Not much.

I felt SO guilty, I decided to bring the dissected pawpaws back to the park. Something will eat them, even if just the ants which already started. And who knows, maybe a seed will make its way to some fertile nook conducive to germination and beyond?

I noticed the leaf and flower buds are already set for next spring. The former is a pointy paintbrush bristle, and the latter a blob. Both are soft and fuzzy, and both are the same maroon as will be the spring flower.