Pennsylvanians preserve pawpaw trees to try to lure back butterflies

By QUINN GLABICKI, Pittsburgh’s Public Source

On a wooded hillside along the banks of the Allegheny River, Gabrielle Marsden brushed up against an oblong leaf: Asimina triloba. The American pawpaw.

The deciduous tree bears North America’s largest native fruit, and, as Marsden explained, supports the zebra swallowtail butterfly — a species that has all but disappeared from the Pittsburgh region.

“They don’t exist here, really,” Marsden said as she trekked along the river near Pittsburgh. The closest she’s found them is in northern West Virginia.

“The most important thing for restoring any species is restoring their habitat,” she said, pausing below a grove of 40-foot-tall pawpaw trees tucked above the railway and flanked by the rusted frame of a Ford sedan. “Nature will do the rest.”

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