Four-petal pawpaw

1986 CEFlorida

"The federally endangered Asimina tetramera, or four-petal pawpaw plant, provides fruit for the gopher tortoise, is a host to zebra swallowtail butterfly larvae and offers a bloom that either reeks of feces, yeast, rotten fruit or wafts the more pleasant earthy scent of root beer. In all the world, it has been reduced to about a 35-mile strip of high and dry coastal sand pine scrub habitat" in Palm Beach, Florida. "With its habitat scraped and discarded for homes, condos and shopping plazas, there are believed to be just 1,400 plants left in the wild, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plant was listed as endangered in 1986."

Kimberly Miller, "The last of the four-petal pawpaw plants are in South Florida and need help to survive," Palm Beach Post, November 15, 2023.

Image: Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach, Florida, Planet Earth!, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons