We have a small orchard on the back edge of our property. It boast several different varieties of apples, three pear trees and a cherry tree. I know this because last year they all produced mountains of fruit and therefore I was able to identify them. However, there are two little trees on the end that did not fruit last year and I couldn’t figure out what they were. I’d ask anyone that walked through the trees, “Do you know what this is?” and I’d get the reply, “Maybe it’s a nut tree or peach or plum.”
This year the two little trees flowered nicely and then started to form fruit. Hooray, I was going to know what the heck kind of tree it is. But then, the fruit started turning from bright green to yellow to redish purple and then sadly….
it all dropped on the ground. What am I doing wrong to this tree? And more importantly, what is it? I’ll sit right here until somebody gives me the answer. Okay, not really, but this mystery must be solved…..today. Okay, not really today, how about before next spring? Does that give everyone enough time to do their research? Yes, okay get to clickin’.
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It looks like a tiny mango!
Kinda looks like a Pawpaw tree my Grandpa had. But his fruit was much bigger
It is a Paw Paw tree but they need to ripen more too eat.
I’d like to see the leaves and if you’d cut through one of the fruits and show that, it could help. Thanks!
Pappaw tree…fruit has a slight banana and apple flavor…my FIL has one t
That could possibly be a plum tree. Looks like a variety of plums I recently saw in of our supermarkets. Can’t remember the name now. I enjoy reading your blog.
It looks like a tiny Italian plum (I’m on the West Coast of Canada so not sure if they grow where you are).
Heck if I know. What is a PawPaw tree anyway?
Yup it looks like a paw paw tree to me. Here’s a link
Whoops here’s the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw
Yeah, I was going to go with paw paw.
All I know about pawpaws is part of a song– “Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch”.
Did you check out in the link that Katy left…under the cultication section…maybe you could put those left over chicken parts next year over by the ol’paw-paw tree so y’all can have some big fruits!! wwhhhoooooeeeee gotta love the dead road carcass inspired pollinators…lol
Cultivation
Pollinated by scavenging fruit flies, carrion flies and beetles, the flowers emit a weak to no scent which attracts few, if any, pollinators, thus limiting fruit production.
Larger growers sometimes locate rotting fruit or roadkill meat near the trees at bloom time to increase the number of pollinators. Asimina triloba is the only larval host of the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly.
Showed the photos to my mother in law, she said it could be a variation of guava and the tree isn’t getting watered enough. She wants a photos of the cross section of the fruit (to see the seed type,) picture of the leaves, trunk, and whole photo of the tree.
She’ll get down to the bottom of this mystery!
The top photo looks like a squash tree. Okay, okay!!! I’m kidding, but “roadkill” – ewwwwww!!!!
The top picture looks like a mango tree.
I searched google images and I think it looks much more like a mango tree(at least the fruit) than a pawpaw tree. But, what do I know?
I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘male tree’..did you see Three Amigos? You can call it Paw Paw if that makes you feel better!
I am thinking you have a sister that works in a garden center and can’t she take the fruit to work and ask a professional? I have an orange tree and it’s 2 years crummy orange production (Maybe 100 oranges) and the next few years 100′s and hundred of oranges. You may need to cull 2 out of three baby fruits too so it gives a chance to the others to grow that is what we do with apricots and peaches.
It looks like a prune plum to me but I’m on the west coast of Canada too and I’m not sure their range. My plum set a few this year and then dropped them a month ago.
Mini-mangoes! Well, that’s what they look like to me!
I was going to guess paw paw, but I see many others already have. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a paw paw (like 30 years!) so don’t take my word for it.
Hey, can’t you ask at your county extension office?
My first thought was Pawpaw as well.
It also looks like a lot of different tropical fruits. Check out this site: http://www.tradewindsfruitstore.com/servlet/StoreFront
Chefee and Mark say “Paw Paw”
“Picking up paw paws, put ‘em in a basket
Picking up paw paws, put ‘em in a basket
Picking up paw paws, put ‘em in a basket
Way down yonder in the paw paw patch.”
I say, that’s why I married Chefee, so I don’t need to know.
My guess is an olive of some type – of course, I haven’t seen the leaves!
paw paw fruit, is what I think it is
Every year is different on the farm donchaknow. Last year our cherry tree dumped all its cherries. This year its loaded and is almost ready to pick. I was told that it dumped last year because it hadn’t been pollinated. Yes, it set fruit but it hadn’t been pollinated well enough so the fruit dropped. Other factors are a cold spell in the spring and not enough water. The fruit in the first picture does look shrively and dry. Around here the orchardists spray their fruit trees at certain times with things that make the tree hold on to the fruit. No lying.
Well,maybe American paw paws are different to Australian paw paws but those pictures don’t look like the paw paws I have growing – have never seen one turn purple, the leaves look wrong and they aren’t growing all bunched together on the stalk. I’m edging toward the olive camp but the tree doesn’t look right for them either! Ahhh… mystery!!!!
I don’t think a mango or olive tree could even survive in your neck of the woods??? I was going to go with a paw paw tree too. Take a fruit and some leaves to the county extension….they should be able to figure it out! Good luck!
It looks like a paw paw, to me. Also known as “Michigan Banana” or “Hoosier Banana”. If you cut open the fruit it should have several black seeds inside. You let the fruit ripen until they’re black and almost rotten, and then they taste sweet and tropical, like a cross between a mango and a banana and an apple. I’ve tried baking with them, but they’re better just eaten fresh.
Google it and you’ll find out more info!
That first photo looks like Paw Paw. I grew up in Kansas and never knew they grew here, but they do. Some friends have quite a few back in the wooded area along a creek (where the ground is never tilled, so they had a chance to get tall). She makes banana bread with them, as they’re creamy like bananas. They don’t freeze or can well, so eat them fresh or bake with them. When yours finally get to going. The fruit should be about as long as your hand and greenish yellow when ripe. Would you like some ripe ones to try? She always has enough to give away.
Figs? Dates?
Have you asked Virginia? I dunno what kind of tree, they don’t have these kind in FL.
The leaves from the picture of the tree don’t look like a pawpaw at all – they are usually in groups of five, like a hand with fingers, and are pretty large in proportion to the tree. Evan a grafted tree would have the correct leaves. Around here, in southern Ohio, you usually find them in the understory, like you do redbuds or dogwoods. The fruit does look kind of like a pawpaw, but it also looks like a mango. I agree with going to the the county extension – they usually know right out of the gate, but make sure you bring them in a plastic bag or they will FREAK OUT, fearing you may bring a terrible disease with you. This is from personal experience.
It sort of looks like a small italian plum, but then again, I have never seen a paw-paw. But then again, plums get purple all over and are about twice that size.
Paw paw trees have much bigger fruit. Maybe it cross polinated with the cherry tree and that diminished the fruit size. Just a thought.
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Delurking to say, that looks like a fig to me. When I was a child, my grandmother had a fig plant that had grown into a huge tree. I am most likely wrong, considering I’m an amazingly indoor person, but I was still feeling very two cents-ish.