You pose an interesting question. My first reaction was no, papayas and paw paws are completely different, no relation, but lo and behold, there is some relation. Paw paws are a temperate tree while papayas are strictly tropical. However, according to the Wiki, the carica papaya is often referred to as a paw paw even though they are distinctly different. I have papayas in my backyard but have never grown paw paws, which need a lot of chill hours, not usually experienced in my zone. You learn something every day.

Actually, the early settlers in my area ( from the wilds of NJ, for the most part) did call the small wild papayas paw paws, which confuses me, too.

Agreed - 'pawpaw' is another so-called 'common' name for papayas, but there IS a true pawpaw tree as well.

They are entirely different plants. I didn't know that papayas were called pawpaws either. It is probably a case where someone saw a papaya and it reminded them of a pawpaw. It's like how a rose apple isn't really an apple.

The kind of fruit you get in the grocery store is a papaya (apparently also known by some as a pawpaw.) It is tropical. There are several varieties.

The there are several closely related species of true pawpaws. Some of them tolerate more heat or cold than others. The genus is Asimina. The native Florida pawpaw seem to be difficult to locate commercially.

There are actually 8 species of pawpaw (Asimina spp.) native to Florida. Most of them don't usually attain tree height. The common pawpaw tree that people usually think of as being further north (Asimina triloba) does grow in parts of the Panhandle.

There seems to be several theories surrounding the origin of the name "pawpaw" - I've seen some sources that suggest that the name originated with papaya, and later got misattributed to Asimina due to some superficial similarity of the fruit (although I don't think they're very similar).

Based on some old reference I read once, the term 'paw-paw' was the origin of name for the papaya (or any other close looking fruit). But, that name, 'paw-paw' came from the sound the fruit makes, when it hits the ground after ripening.

Is there a good source for native paw paws?

There was someone selling native paw paws, Pietro's Paw Paws or something like that, but I tried to get in touch with her a year or two back and didn't ever get any response.

Lukas Nursery has a bunch of smallflower (the larger plant) and bigflower (the smaller plant) paw-paws and they came with an instruction sheet that gives that Pietro's Paw Paws name on it too.

I see this posting is over a year old, but if anyone is still interested, my son grows paw paws in Tennessee and he likes to discuss them. His facebook page is @therivergardensparta.