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Home , Diospyros, Diospyros kaki, Diospyros texana, Persimmon

Notes on , Kakis, Date , and Chapotes

Stephen A. Spongberg

As horticultural taxonomist at the Arboretum for over twenty years, Dr. Spongberg’s interests are very wide ranging. Among them are the persimmons, a group he came to admire during the course of his many trips to the orient.

The is not at present an or Family, the genus con- important genus of ornamental woody tains upwards of 400 that occur in in North America, and while native persim- both the Old and New Worlds with the mons once were valuable in the eastern greatest concentrations of species occurring United States, the fruits produced by in Madagascar (over 100 species), in Malaysia, Diospyros species no longer are important and in Africa. The relatively few species food items in the American home. In the native to regions of temperate climate come countries of eastern Asia at least two species primarily from eastern Asia, but two species, of Diospyros are among the most common D. virginiana and D. texana, are indigenous encountered in dooryard gardens and to the United States. orchards, where they are cultivated for their A second reason even the hardy exotic and edible fruits as well as for other uses and for native species are rarely cultivated undoubt- their ornamental beauty. J. J. Rein, a German edly is related to a general lack of knowledge traveler and author, wrote in 1889 that concerning when and how the fruits can be Linnaeus f. was "undeniably eaten, stored for future use, and prepared. the most widely distributed, most important, While I always begin to look for persimmons and most beautiful in , , in local markets and on Arnold Arboretum and Northern ." And in Japan, where D. trees as the fall advances, many persons’ kaki is second in importance as an orchard experiences with these fruits understandably crop only to citrus fruit, the kaki often is end when they first bite into a hard, astrin- referred to as the national fruit. gent, and puckery . Such disap- The rarity with which species of Diospyros pointments no doubt have contributed to a are found in cultivation in cool-temperate lack of demand for persimmons in American North America is partially due to the fact that markets. most are native to regions of tropical and sub- Despite the fancy prices asked for oriental tropical climate and are not hardy in areas of persimmons or kakis in local vegetable stands temperate climate. A member of the and supermarkets, I am hopeful this article will stimulate enough interest to encourage Volume 39(5): 290-310, 1979. readers to buy and enjoy a persimmon or two 48

The American persimmon, Diospyros virgimana, growing at the Arnold Arboretum. Photo by Racz and Debreczy. 49

and to experiment with different ways of serv- another. In still other, rarer instances, a few ing, and perhaps, preserving them. If native perfect , that is, flowers that contain or American persimmons grow nearby, they both functional male and female parts, may can be gathered at little or no cost. I also am occur on staminate or carpellate plants or on hopeful that both the oriental and American plants producing both carpellate and species will be more widely planted both for staminate flowers. their fruits and as biologically interesting Flowering occurs in late spring and early ornamentals. summer, usually during late May and June in the Arnold Arboretum, and swarms of small Characteristics of and Native Hardy Exotic honey have been noted to work the Persimmons flowers during this period. Due to their small The genus Diospyros, the name derived from size, their nodding position in the axils, the Greek Dios, of Zeus or of Jove, and pyros, and also because of their greenish and whit- grain, in allusion to the sweet fruits fit for the ish to yellowish color, flowers of Diospyros are gods, consists of trees and , and while often unnoticed, and it may be only the some are plants, all of the species activity of large numbers of insects visiting considered below are . The of the flowers for pollen or nectar or both that the majority of species is very hard with a draws attention to the fact the trees are in watery sap, and the heart wood is often black- . ish. The heart wood of several of the tropical Initially green, hard, and with their high species, especially that of D. ebenum Koenig content, extremely astringent, the ex Retzius, is the source of ebony, a hard, black fruits and their subtending calyces increase in wood often used for piano keys and for other size as the season progresses and gradually inlaid cabinetry work and undoubtedly the assume their mature color and texture. most widely known product of this otherwise Depending on the , the fruits may little-known genus.... ripen any time between July and December The sexuality of persimmon trees and the or even February, and contrary to some production of persimmon fruits are poorly reports, frost apparently is not necessary to understood and in need of further detailed reduce astringency or to hasten . As study. From what is known, persimmons are a matter of fact, some of the orien- a biologically intriguing example of a varia- tal persimmon or kaki are sweet and edible ble and complex reproductive system. In when still green and hard, looking like, and general, the staminate and carpellate flowers with the texture of, green . are restricted to different individual plants, Ripe persimmons may either contain and the species is classified as dioecious (i.e., or, surprisingly, be totally free of seeds. Fruits two households, male and female individuals containing seeds probably result from the nor- separated). However, in some instances, mal sexual process whereby the egg cells con- flowers of both sexes occur on a single tained in the ovules of the of a carpellate individual , a few branchlets of an other- flower are fertilized, and seeds and fruit wise carpellate tree bearing staminate flowers develop. Seedless persimmons, on the other or vice versa. Under these circumstances the hand, develop without fertilization. The species is said to be monoecious (i.e., one development of fruit without fertilization household, separate male and female flowers and hence without seeds is known as on the same plant). Yet another added com- . What factors are necessary to plexity in Diospyros is that some plants con- trigger parthenocarpic development in persim- sistently produce flowers of both sexes, but mons is not known to me and constitutes others change from year to year, producing another aspect of the variable and complex flowers of both sexes in one year, but not in reproductive mechanisms of the genus. 50

Moreover, circumstantial evidence involving or blackish color, is irregularly and deeply fis- a presumable tot;illv carpellate tree of sTireri into small blocklike plates, and resem- in the Arnold Arbore- bles that of the flowering dogwood, tum that regularly produces -filled fruits, florida L.... yet is a considerable distance from the nearest The fruits of the American persimmon vary staminate tree, suggests the possibility that in size from that of a small cherry to that of some seeded fruits also may be produced a large about 4 centimeters in diameter, without and fertilization. The lat- and in color from orangish to pinkish-yellow, ter type of asexual seed production, termed often with a grayish bloom when ripe, to dark apomixis, is known in some plant families, purple or bluish-black in f. atra Sargent. The but has not been documented in Diospyros or fruits are an important food to many forms of the Ebenaceae. It might explain some of the wildlife, and opossums, raccoons, and squir- variability of some species of Diospyros, rels often strip the trees of any fruits remain- including the kaki, and help in interpreting ing on the branchlets during the winter taxonomic complexities of the genus. months. The fruits also were important food The species of Diospyros known to me to items to the Indians of eastern North America be cultivated in cool-temperate regions of as well as to the first European settlers and eastern North America are discussed explorers. Easily grown from seed, American individually below.... persimmons were sent back to England and established in English gardens some time 1. Diospyros virginiana Linnaeus, Sp. P1.2: before 1629. 1057. 1753. The American persimmon, com- The Spanish explorer Don Fernando de Soto mon persimmon, simmon, or possum wood, learned of the food value of the persimmon is native to a wide area of the eastern United from the Indians of Florida in 1539 and prob- States, from southern New England and Long ably was the first European to write about the Island south to southern Florida, and west- fruit. In the next century, Captain John Smith, ward into eastern Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, among others, took an interest in the putcha- and eastern . Infrequent in southern mins of the Indians, and likened them to med- New England, it reaches the northernmost lars (Mespilus germanica L.), noting that "if limit of its natural distribution at Lighthouse it not be ripe it will drawe a mans mouth Point in New Haven, Connecticut, but it is awrie with much torment; but when it is ripe, hardy further north and can be cultivated suc- it is as delicious as an Apricock." The name cessfully throughout USDA Zones 5a and 5b. putchamin, L. H. Bailey suggests, probably is Common south of New England both east and a phonetic rendering of the Indian name for west of the Allegheny Mountains, Diospyros the plant. virginiana is particularly plentiful in the Hedrick, in his History of Horticulture in southeastern states where it often invades fal- America to 1860, states that "of the several low fields and forms dense thickets along plants used by the Indians, two, the persim- roadsides, spreading by means of black, fleshy, mon and sassafras, were of importance to the stoloniferous roots. The trees usually grow in [colonists] of Maryland and Virginia." Euro- sandy, well-drained , but also occur in pean settlers in the southern states prepared rich, wet soils of bottomland forests. a persimmon or simmon beer and used the An extremely variable species over its wide fermented juice to distill an apparently very range, the American persimmon occasionally good brandy. In Pennsylvania, Isaac Bartram develops a shrublike habit, but generally is a wrote a treatise on the preparation of persim- small tree to 10 or 15 meters, rarely to 35 mon wine. Persimmons also were eaten when meters, often with spreading and pendulous ripe, or prepared in puddings, breads, or as branches. The , hard and of a brownish preserves, while dried persimmons were 51

to the fact that the American appetite for per- simmons is limited, and the - produced oriental persimmons satisfy the cur- rent market demand. Nonetheless, local native and occasional cultivated trees help to satisfy those of us who enjoy our native per- simmon....

2. Diospyros lotus Linnaeus. Sp. Pl. 2: 1057. 1753. The date plum, Diospyros lotus, is very similar to the American persimmon in its morphology and may be the closest living relative of our native species.... In the Old World, D. lotus is very widely distributed as a native, naturalized, or cultivated plant from southern , the Caucasus, and Asia Minor eastward through the northwestern Himalayan region, and into China, Korea, and Japan. In cultivation since ancient times, the natural occurrence and original distribution of D. lotus no longer are possible to ascertain. In England and other areas of northern Europe, the date plum has been cultivated as an ornamental since the 16th In North An old tree of Diospyros lotus, approximately 26 century. meters tall, growing at the base of Fei-Yiieh-hng, America, the date plum is hardy at least as Ching Chi Hsien, western Szechwan Province, China. far north as the Boston area. It probably was Photo by E H Wilson, 1908. From the Archives of introduced into North America when seeds the Arnold Arboretum. were received at the Arnold Arboretum in 1884 from the Imperial Botanical Garden at St. Petersburg. stored and eaten as we eat figs and dates. The A small tree, usually with a rounded crown, wood of the common persimmon has been that with age may attain 30 meters in height, valued for its hardness and density and has Diospyros lotus is valued in Asia for its small, been used locally for innumerable items; it yellowish-brown to bluish-black fruits, which once was preferred for shuttles over any other have a taste similar to dates and often are dried American wood. for winter consumption. The Chinese name During the 19th and early 20th centuries, for the species, Ghae tsao, signifies black date. considerable interest centered on the Ameri- The fruits attain a diameter of about 2 cen- can persimmon as a potential orchard crop, timeters, and those I have examined or eaten and numerous cultivars, selected for fruit always have been almost completely filled color, taste, size, and early maturation, were with brown, oblong, and flattened seeds. F. N. selected from wild populations and Meyer, a plant collector for the USDA, named.... While interest in cultivars of reported a seedless type from China. The date Diospyros virginian has continued to the plum is especially valued in eastern Asia as present day, primarily in the Midwest, to my an understock onto which scions of the orien- knowledge American persimmons never have tal persimmon are grafted. been grown successfully on a commercial Diospyros lotus grows, either as a native or scale. Undoubtedly, this in large part is due naturalized plant, in rocky, protected ravines, 52

along mountain streams, and on rocky slopes. In }apan i saw a fruiting and healthy-appearing tree growing from a crevice in a rock outcrop on the Pacific Ocean beach at Matsushima. The date plum may prove of value as a small ornamental tree in coastal areas where salt spray limits the effective use of other ornamental species. 3. Diospyros kaki Linnaeus f., Suppl. Pl. 439. 1781. The kaki, Chinese persimmon, Japanese persimmon, or oriental persimmon, with fruits sometimes the size of large toma- toes, is the persimmon that occasionally appears in American markets and abounds in markets in Japan, Korea, and China during the late summer and fall and into winter. Like the date plum, kakis have been cultivated for such Cords of peeled persimmons (Diospyros kaki) hung up to dry in the village of Siku, Kansu Province, an extended of time that the natural period China, where the local name, Fang sze tze, signifies species range has become totally obliterated. "square persimmon." Photo byE N. Meyer, 1914. From Grubov, a Russian botanist, has suggested that the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. the wild progenitor of the cultivated forms was native to northern China, while Rehder and Wilson in Plantae Wilsonae (1916) state most common kaki in American produce that Diospyros kaki var. sylvestris Makino, markets. the reputed wild form of the kaki, with As noted previously, the astringency of per- smaller, yellow, and often hairy fruits, is simmons is a variable character caused by tan- "abundant in the mountains of central and nins that, depending upon the cultivar, may western China up to 4000 feet altitude, where or may not be present when the fruits are

it forms a large tree 50 or 60 feet tall." ... green and hard. Some forms never lose their That selection for differing fruit types has astringency, even when soft. The tannin- occurred is evidenced by the upwards of a bearing cells are scattered in strands through- thousand cultivars or forms of the kaki that out the flesh of the fruit, and the tannin is are cultivated in Asia and maintained by ring- associated with a mucilage-like budding or grafting, primarily on date plum that coagulates and "absorbs" the tannin dur- rootstock. Ranging in size from about 2 cen- ing ripening. Oxidation of the absorbed tan- timeters in diameter, the size of a small plum, nin causes the tannin-filled cells to turn to about 8 centimeters in diameter with a in some cultivars; the strands of cells are then weight of over a pound, kakis can be astrin- easily distinguished. Kaki fruits are also very gent or sweet, seedless or seeded, and conical, high in C and content ( round, flattened, or almost cubical in shape, ca. 18 percent), the latter a variable character, and some cultivars have longitudinal or like astringency, but have relatively low per- horizontal ridges or furrows. The ’Tamopan’ centages of and . In Japan, hard, or grindstone persimmon is one of the bizarre astringent persimmons were sometimes forms, with an equatorial to near basal furrow, placed in used sake casks or tubs to ripen, and while the more regular, oblong-conical fruits these "tub persimmons" which absorbed the of ’Hachiya’ with rounded apices terminating flavor and perfume of the sake, were consi- in small, black, stylar scars, are probably the dered a delicacy. However, the Japanese appar- 53

ently often ate the hard, unripened fruit, a fact kakis and date plums during the summer and that prompted Charles Sargent to observe that is used to toughen paper, wood, and fishnets. the kaki was "consumed in immense quanti- It also is required in one stage of the compli- ties by the Japanese, who eat it, as they do all cated process of making fine Japanese lacquer their fruits, before it is ripe, and while it has work and in the preparation of sake and cer- the texture and consistency of a pavingstone." tain . Unlike Americans, who regard the kaki as Sir Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain James a fresh fruit to be eaten when ripe or, more Cook’s first voyage around the world, is rarely, frozen for later use, the peoples of credited with the introduction of Diospyros eastern Asia for centuries have dried the fruits kaki into Europe, while the first trees of the for storage and use during the winter and early kaki in North America probably were grown spring months. The persimmons, either from seeds obtained in Japan by Commodore whole or sliced, and occasionally skinned, are Perry in 1856. Likened by some to an dried in the sun until their flesh attains the or pear tree in size and shape, but with larger, consistency of a dried fig. I have seen sliced lustrous green that turn scarlet in the persimmons drying on wooden platforms on fall, when it is particularly handsome with its rooftops in Korea, while a photograph taken brilliant fruits, the kaki was considered by Sar- by Frank N. Meyer, Agricultural Explorer in gent to be the most beautiful of any China for the U.S. Department of Agriculture of cold temperate climates. Knowing that the early in this century, shows the fruits strung kaki is hardy in Peking, Sargent speculated on stout cords and suspended from a simple that it would be hardy in New England "if scaffold to dry in the sun and wind.... plants of a northern race can be obtained."*" Meyer’s photographs also document another Unfortunately, kakis, even some grown from way in which the persimmon is used. In cer- seed obtained near Peking, never have sur- tain areas of China, the sugar, which collects vived in the Arnold Arboretum for longer than on the cut surfaces of the dried kakis, is com- a few growing seasons.... pacted into thin, round cakes or loaves and then pressed into molds to produce orna- 4. Scheele, Linnaea mented tablets. The Chinese characters on 22:145. 1849. Unlike the carpellate flowers of the surface of the tablets photographed by the American persimmon, the date plum, and Meyer signify "double happiness"; couples the kaki, carpellate flowers of the chapote, engaged to be married often present these black persimmon, or Mexican persimmon tablets to friends from whom they have lack sterile or staminodia. Moreover, received wedding gifts. The tablets of sugar the flowers appear on the branchlets of the also are served as one of the eight comestibles previous year’s growth, and the anthers of the offered with during the first course of staminate flowers open by short, apical slits, traditional Chinese banquets. while those of the other species dehisce by The kaki is grown in Asia for more than its longitudinal slits that continue down the edible fruits. Numerous medicinal properties entire length of the anther. These differences have been attributed to different parts of the help to distinguish Diospyros texana from the plants. The green unripe fruits of what in other species of the genus and were considered China is known as the oil persimmon, by John K. Small of enough significance to Diospyros kaki var. sylvestris, the reputed merit placing D. texana in a separate, mono- wild form of the domesticated kakis, are used typic genus, Brayodendron. However, most to make a varnish oil that renders hats and botanists have continued to regard the chapote umbrellas waterproof. In Japan, Shibu, a as a unique species of Diospyros. highly astringent, milky, light or dark gray The chapote further differs from the other fluid rich in tannin, is prepared from unripe species discussed in this article in its shrubby, 54

and the outer layers exfoliate in irregular sheets, exposing the smooth, gray, inner bark. In appearance, it is reminiscent of the mot- tled bark of the crape-myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica L.) and is one of the characters that recommend the chapote as an . Native to the United States, the chapote is distributed in central and western Texas and ranges southward into the Mexican states of , Nuevo Le6n, and . Over its range it grows in rich moist soils of bot- tomlands as well as on dry rocky mesas and in isolated canyons. The small, hairy, black fruits mature to 2.5 centimeters in diameter. When mature, they are sweet but rather insipid. According to Paul Standley, they leave an "indelible black stain upon everything with which [they] come in contact" and have been Square tablets of persimmon sugar obtained from the used by Mexicans of the Rio Grande Valley to dried fruits of a vanety of Diospyros kaki with the Chinese name Pen sze sse. The Chinese characters sheepskins. signify "double happiness." Photo by F. N. Meyer, Sargent notes that this species should prove 1914. From the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum valuable as a cultivated ornamental for its attractive, lustrous foliage, the interesting black fruits of the carpellate plants, and its often many-stemmed habit, although it may mottled bark. It is recorded as cultivated in develop into a single-stemmed twiggy tree Virginia and in Pennsylvania, and although it that occasionally reaches 25 meters in height. has not yet proven hardy at the Arnold Arbore- The bark of the chapote also is distinctive; it tum, it may be hardy as far north as southern is smooth, light reddish-gray or reddish-brown, New England.