By Andrew Bunting, PHS Vice President of Horticulture
The American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana which is found in our native deciduous woods from Connecticut south to Florida and west to Kansas is a native tree with ornamental and edible fruits. These upright trees are easily identified in any season by their black trunks that have alligator skin-like bark. The American persimmon bears a round orange fruit about the circumference of a quarter. There are tannins in the fruits that causes an astringent sensation when the fruits are not completely ripe. If the fruits have not been frosted a couple times eating a fruit will literally make your mouth “pucker”. Persimmons are dioecious meaning that male and female flowers are borne on separate trees. Therefore, for fruit set you need both trees, trees with female flowers and trees with male flowers.
In eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey our winters are mild enough to grow the coveted Asian persimmon, Diospyros kaki (pictured above). I was first introduced to these much larger persimmons by local plantsman, Charles Cresson who has different cultivars at his house and at his brother’s home in Swarthmore. On Charles’ neighbor’s property there is a specimen on ‘Great Wall’ which has squat fruits that are 2 ½” by 2 1/2” and look like tiny, bright orange pumpkins. The fruits ripen late in the fall as the large broad leaves are turning bright yellow. While many of the Asian types are less astringent than the American persimmon they still need to stay on the tree and unpicked until there has been several nights of cold temperatures to fully ripen. Similar in fruit size and shape to ‘Great Wall’ is ‘Kyungsun Ban-si’ and ‘Sheng’. If you can find persimmons in the grocery store or at the farmer’s market it is likely to be ‘Fuyu’
Persimmons can be used for a number of edible treats including jam, pies, pudding, cookies and my neighbors made persimmon ice cream one year! Persimmon fruits are highly nutritious and are considered excellent sources of vitamins A and C. Whole persimmons can also be frozen and consumed at a later date.
In my home garden I have four Diospyros kaki ‘Saijo’ that flank a seating area in the central part of my vegetable garden. I planted these trees as young trees that were about five feet tall. Ten years later they are approximately 30 feet tall and bear beautiful egg-shaped orange fruits about three inches in length. While the fruit every year they seem to have a bumper crop every other year.
