Hmm. Some of us have heard of it via the original Disney animated Jungle Book, where it cameos in the song "Bear Necessities" (or is that "Bare Necessities?" Dual meaning and all that, forget which one is the canonical title.) Anyway, Phil Harris sings:

"Now when you pick a pawpaw / or a prickly pear / and if you prick a raw paw / well then next time, beware! Don't pick a prickly pear by the paw / when you pick a pear, try to use the claw. But you don't need to use the paw / when you pick a pear from a big pawpaw. Have I given you a clue?"

This may have placed me under the erroneous impression it was a tropical fruit.

To avoid confusion, the word "pawpaw" means very different things in different parts of the English-speaking world.

Outside of North America, "pawpaw" usually means what Americans call papaya -- and in some countries (like New Zealand) both "papaya" and "pawpaw" are used to refer to different varieties of what Americans call papayas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paw_Paw

One issue with Pawpaw is that some varieties have high levels of acetogenins:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annonacin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetogenin

There are some low annonacin varieties: Sunflower, Wabash, Potomac, Zimmerman, and Wells.

Its amazing that they can grow so far north. Its like tropical fruit plant that survived the ice age.