Pawpaw Buds: Leaf Buds and Flower Buds

No leaves. No fruit. Just twigs. Just a bundle of twigs sticking up out of the ground. That's what winter might mean to some pawpaw watchers--but only if those pawpaw watchers weren't dedicated to watching closely. For dedicated watchers, winter is the time for looking at pawpaw buds and divining what they contain, based on their shapes and positions on the tree.

Here's one of the pawpaws, with buds all gauzy. Let's take a closer look...

The bud at the end of the twig is called the terminal bud, promising to extend the twig's length during spring and summer, maybe by six to twelve inches.

This photo has the lower bud in better focus. The lower bud is called a lateral bud (that's the name, I understand, for any bud that's not at the end of a twig). This lateral bud is a leaf bud, containing a leaf or a new green twig that will emerge in the spring. 

Terminal bud with two lateral leaf buds

Here's another lateral bud, but it's not a leaf bud. It's a fruit bud. You can see the difference even in winter, maybe especially in winter, because the fruit bud is round and seems more furry than the leaf bud. With any luck, this fruit bud will develop into a pawpaw that we'll pick this September. With an added measure of luck, the bud will develop into a cluster of five pawpaws, also ready in September. With something far beyond an added measure of luck, this cluster of five pawpaws will contain a seed that will give rise to a pawpaw tree that will become world famous for prolifically producing large fruit that tastes like the most divine custard, mixed with a soul-crushingly exquisite butterscotch syrup.

Same fruit bud but closer. Below the fruit bud, you can see the leaf scar (a horseshoe with half-dozen nail holes), where the leaf fell from in the autumn, leaving the fruit bud exposed through the winter.

As dedicated pawpaw-watchers know, there's so much more than twigs going on in winter.