Overleese has the quiet confidence of something that has been proving itself for decades. Found growing wild in Indiana and selected in 1950, it remains a benchmark against which newer cultivars are often measured, primarily for the size of its fruits — large, oval, with a good seed-to-pulp ratio and flesh that shades from yellow to orange. With up to 55 fruits per tree, productivity is genuinely impressive for a late-season variety. It reaches 15 to 20 feet and grows with the unhurried composure of a tree that belongs to the forest understory.

As a later-ripening cultivar, Overleese extends the pawpaw season usefully, filling the gap after early varieties like Allegheny and NC-1 have finished. Cross-pollination from another cultivar is required — it will not set fruit alone — and thinning clusters to a single fruit is worthwhile to develop each one fully. The purplish-brown spring flowers are unusual enough to stop visitors in their tracks before the leaves arrive. Autumn brings yellow foliage, a clean and unhurried close to the growing year. Hardy in zones 5 through 9 and tolerant of black walnut, Overleese rewards the grower who plans a small pawpaw collection rather than a single-tree planting.