Yes, they are native to this area. At least they have been my entire lifetime. I suppose back when this part of the country was mostly native prairie and few trees (mostly along the banks of creeks where they had some protection from fire) I don't know what kind of trees were common. But as the country was settled and the wild fires stopped trees of all kinds showed up. Both planted by pioneers I suppose but largely by natural movement.

The Pawpaw trees seem to like rich creek bottom soils in the flood plain and they tend to grow in clusters in and around big trees. They have large black seeds and I would presume the possums and raccoons eat them and poop the seeds out. I know they do the persimmons that way. We also have wild persimmons. Ate a couple of those today also. Kind of small this year with the lack of rain. But they were sweet and pretty tasty after letting them ripen in the kitchen a couple days.

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