Common Persimmon, American Persimmon, White Ebony, Possumwood Diosyros virginiana
by Martin (Mort) Schmidt
Persimmon is Ohio’s hardest native hardwood. A true ebony, it even has black heartwood – if you wait long enough. And Persimmon provides a tasty, plum-like fruit. So tasty that the Latin name, Diospyros, means “fruit of the gods”.
Persimmon Leaves
Persimmon has alternately-arranged, simple, oval leaves that taper down to a point. Oppositely-arranged leaves are attached directly across from each other, while alternately-arranged leaves are staggered, like human footprints. Simple leaves are attached directly to the branches or trunk with their own stem, unlike compound leaves, whose blades share a stem in groups of 3, 5, 7, etc., depending on the species. Persimmon’s deciduous leaves are 2.5 to 6 inches long, 1.5 to 3 inches long, and have no lobes or teeth. The leaves are pinnately-veined, with a single primary vein, as opposed to palmately-veined leaves, with several large veins radiating from the leaf’s base. Persimmon twigs are often hairy.
Palmately-veined. Image by mort Schmidt.
Flowers & Fruit
Persimmons are usually dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers are on separate trees, and you need one of each to produce fruits with viable seeds. The male and female flowers have a similar appearance, and consist of small, white- to cream-colored cups with four lobes. The resulting fruits are ¾ to 1.5 inches in diameter, purple-brown when ripe, with a soft, sweet flesh, and several large, flat seeds. The flesh resembles that of plum, but is famously astringent when unripe. The fruit has a distinctive 4-lobed, or occasionally 5-lobed calyx (crown), which can be found on the ground beneath the tree long after the fruits have disintegrated. Fruits remain on the tree well into winter. Peak production of Persimmon fruit generally occurs on 25- to 50-year old trees, but trees can start producing in as little as 5 years. Persimmon trees can also come up from root suckers, sometimes in sufficient numbers to be invasive.
Branches and Bark
Mature Diospyros virginiana bark is distinctive, with deep, blocky, alligator-skin appearance, and a dark gray color, sometimes with orange furrows. The tree branches are typically horizontal, and it’s common for the lower 10 or 10 feet of trunk to lack branches, even in sunny environments, where other trees often don’t self-prune. A southern proverb quoted in Harriet Keeler’s Our Native Trees, is, “The longest pole takes the persimmon” (You need a long-poled picker to collect the fruit).
fruits, and bark. Notice the 4-lobed calyx on the fruits.
Photos by Mort Schmidt.
Mature Persimmons typically have a height of 20 to 70 feet and a trunk diameter of approximately 1 to 2 feet. The Ohio Champion website has no listing for Persimmon, but the American Forest’s Register of Champion Trees lists a Common Persimmon in Virginia with a height of 85 feet, a trunk diameter of 4.0 feet, and a crown width of 68 feet.
Identifying Persimmons
ID Summary: Oval, pointed, toothless leaves, often hairy stems. Deeply furrowed, blocky, alligator-skin bark. One-inch fruits with prominent 4- or 5-lobed calyces.
Similar Trees: Leaves similar to Tupelo but Persimmon leaves have hairier stems, lighter-colored undersides, and less closely-spaced secondary veins. Tupelo produces small, ¼ inch purple black berries. Persimmon bark may resemble Black Walnut, but often has orange furrows on younger trees.
Photos by Mort Schmidt.
Range & Tolerance
Persimmon is native to the southeastern U.S., as far north as southern Ohio, and west into eastern Texas, up to Missouri. According to Lucy Braun’s The Woody Plants of Ohio, Persimmon is found in the southeastern third of Ohio, including every county bordering the Ohio River. Persimmon is not among the 80 most common trees in the Columbus, Ohio Street Tree Inventory, but it is one of the trees that the Inventory recommends for planting.
Persimmon trees are very tolerant of poor soil, but need reasonably good drainage and some exposure to sunlight. Deep taproots make them drought-tolerant, but it also makes them hard to transplant. Persimmons often occupy fallow fields and abandoned pastures. The need for sunlight and tolerance for poor soil make Persimmon a good choice for land reclamation, but over time, they are replaced by larger, shade-loving trees.
Persimmon is the hardest wood native to Ohio. Its lumber has a Janka hardness of 2,300 lbf and a density of 0.83 g/cc, according to the Wood Database, compared to the median of my list of 73 Ohio trees of 1,075 lbf and 0.64 g/cc. (Wood properties are normally reported for the inner, denser heartwood, but the USDA Silvics Manual indicates that even the outer sapwood has a density of 0.79 g/cc). Osage Orange (aka Hedge Apple, Maclura pomifera) is harder and heavier at 2,620 lbf and 0.86 g/cc, but it’s native to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. There are around 800 species in the genus Diospyros, many of them known as “ebony”. Some have black wood, but there are also black & white ebonies and all-white ebonies. One of the black ebonies, Macassar Ebony (Diopyros celebica) has an astonishing hardness of 3,220 lbf and a density of 1.12 g/cc – too heavy to float in water. Persimmon heartwood is black, similar to the tropical ebonies, but the tree doesn’t grow heartwood for the first 100 years! Persimmon wood has interlocking grain and is therefore split-resistant.
Uses
As late as the 1980s, Persimmon wood was widely used in the manufacture of wooden golf clubs. It has also been employed in the making of pool cues, bobbins, weaving shuttles, shoe lasts, and turnery. Unfortunately, the advantages of high shock and wear resistance are offset by a high shrinkage rate, and a tendency to warp in service. During the Civil War, Persimmon was used for gunstocks and carriage shafts, while roasted seeds were used as a coffee substitute, and ink was made from the bark.
According to the Native American Ethnobotany Database, the Cherokee used Persimmon to treat diarrhea, sore throat and mouth, heartburn, liver problems, thrush, toothache, and venereal diseases.
The Cherokee and Rappahannock also used the fruit as a fresh or dried food, and to make puddings. The Rappahannock also used Persimmons to make a type of beer.
The Princeton Field Guide, Trees of Eastern North America tells us that in the tropics, the leaves of one species of Diospyros is used as cigarette papers, the sticky fruit of another is used to caulk boats, and the fruit of another is made into a black dye for silk.
Persimmon fruits are famously astringent before they ripen. Captain John Smith of Jamestown said, “If it be not ripe, it will draw a man’s mouth awrie with much torment”. Laura Martin’s The Folklore of Trees & Shrubs says that it takes a full day to erase the taste of a green Persimmon. It also says that tea from the fruit was drunk to treat heartburn, diarrhea, and to treat warts and cancer. Martin also indicates that cooking oil with a flavor similar to peanut oil can be extracted from the seeds. Persimmon fruits are, or at least were, widely used in the southern U.S., especially in pies. They were also used to make cookies, puddings, cakes, and salads. However, the fruits available in grocery stores are usually the Asian variety, Diospyros kaki, which yields a larger, less astringent fruit, (and in my experience, less tasty). Many or most of the D. kaki available here are grown in California, but I have seen Persimmon trees with apple-sized fruits in Central Ohio, that were likely the Asian variety.
Persimmon-leaf tea has been consumed in Japan for centuries. Alice Thoms Vitale’s Leaves In Myth, Magic & Medicine describes how to make a tea from Persimmon leaves that is high in Vitamin C and has a taste somewhat like Sassafras, by boiling one part dried leaves with eight parts water for ten minutes. The book Foxfire 3, Eliot Wigginton, ed., describes a number of foods made from Persimmons, including bread, pudding, pie, frosting, candy, marmalade, and even a beer that also calls for Honeylocust seed pods!
The Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs lists the following folk uses for Persimmon: gargle for sore throats and thrush, bark tea for stomach distress, diarrhea, dysentery, and uterine hemorrhage, bark tea externally for warts and cancers.
Persimmon fruits are an important food source for birds, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, deer, and, as one of the common names suggests, opossums. Indeed, John James Audubon’s painting of an opossum shows it on a Persimmon tree. Donald Culross Peattie observes, in his A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, that 55 million years ago, numerous species of Persimmon lived in North America, but now only one or two survive. Another lone survivor of its group is North America’s only marsupial, the opossum. Perhaps they are linked. Various bees, including honeybees and bumblebees visit Possumwood flowers. Leaf beetles, long-horned beetles, and a number of moths feed on the leaves.
S. Theresa Dietz’s The Complete Language of Trees does not discuss Diospyros virginiana, but to other species of Persimmon she attributes the powers of fertility, healing, luck, lust, and protection. Persimmon is associated with Venus, and the water element. [Notice that water is not actually a chemical element, but a compound of the elements hydrogen and oxygen]. A wand of Persimmon or Ebony will provide its user with unlimited power. Bury a green Oriental Persimmon (D. kaki) near the entrance to your home for good luck.
Because unripe Persimmon fruits are highly astringent, many people don’t eat them until they’re ripe enough to fall from the tree. Diana Wells’ Lives of the Trees quotes from a southern folk song, Bile Them Cabbage Down, in which an opossum and a raccoon have a relationship, including a marriage proposal. The song includes the words, “Possum up the ‘simmon tree, Racoon on the ground, Raccoon say to the possum, Won’t you shake them ‘simmons down?”
It’s hard not to admire the tree with Ohio’s hardest native wood. But good luck finding one with black heartwood.
Webinar & Videos
You can watch my webinar on 18 Winter Trees here. You can also listen to my talks on Ohio Broadleaf Tree Identification on YouTube, Part 1 and Part 2.
Preview YouTube video Part 2 50 Ohio Broadleaf Trees by Mort SchmidtPreview YouTube video Part 2 50 Ohio Broadleaf Trees by Mort Schmidt
