A chapter of the so called Paradoxographus Palatinus (PP 18) contains a story about the persea tree, attributed to Athenaeus by the excerptor of the sylloge; this could potentially represent the only fragment of the Naucratite known so far, which cannot be found in the manuscripts of Deipnosophists. This note aims to analyse, on the one hand, the content of the chapter as part of the much-debated topic of the persea tree and its legends and, on the other, to offer some suggestions about the likeliness of Athenaeus’ authorship.