Any hunters here hunt near any pawpaw trees? How much do whitetails like this fruit?

Okay, I'll be the ignorant one, what is a PawPaw tree?[8D]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw
I heard the deer love them. looking for someone that hunts around them. I also heard that the deer hate the smell of the stem

my farm is loaded up w/ pawpaw trees... And as far as Im concerned the deer primarily use them for cover... which is what they love about them... 90% of the deer I see are moving through the pawpaws... That being said, it is one of the sweetest fruits around and is extremely nutricious. Its amazing that cutting one in half and less than a min later its brown. My guess is that the deer nibble on them when they go by, but since they ripen in early fall there is so much other food that the deer walk past em... IE: corn, beans, and acorns. It could also be that they are so abundant on my farm the deer just dont eat them fast enough... They get rotten really quick. I will take note this weekend when im hunting to see if the deer eat them... but I usually stay out of the pawpaws and hunt the edges since the deer bed in them.

Rob - Its a deciduous tree native to the eastern us. ranges from FL to NY. ITs very abundant on the eastern shore of MD... maybe thats where our bucks get their size Interestingly it bears the largest fruit native to North America. It looks like it should be asain or from the rainforest. Big huge leaves in large clusters.. Basically a big bush w/ big leaves...

I have hunted around a few of them when i was in Kentucky but never saw any deer around them. I sure did like them.

Well thank you very much. You see, today I learned something and now I'm exhausted...wheew and reading that website I you'd thunk I'd seen one. Must not be any near me. Thanks.

Rob, I know you've spent all that time on wikipedia learning what a pawpaw is.....Simply, it's basically a wild banana, we have a truck load of them in the woods behind my parents house.

Oh yeah, deer eat 'em....Like they're goin out of style!

And the trees behind my house are starting to drop them right now. I have seen some with what looked like a deer bite out of them.

I've never seen the tree. After reading the webpage and saying they run form NY to Fl, perhaps PA is too far off the east coast....never saw one, nor heard of them but now I know!

well i know that there are alot in the woods i am scouting right now. They actually are very tasty. The fruit i found also has big bites out of it and deer sign around, so i hope this is a great whitetail snack.