Notes on Persimmon, Kakis, Date Plums, and Chapotes

Notes on Persimmons, Kakis, Date Plums, 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 genus Diospyros is not at present an Ebenaceae or Ebony Family, the genus con- important genus of ornamental woody plants tains upwards of 400 species that occur in in North America, and while native persim- both the Old and New Worlds with the mons once were valuable fruits 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 trees 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 Diospyros kaki 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 fruit tree in Japan, Korea, in local markets and on Arnold Arboretum and Northern China." 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 persimmon. 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 flowers, 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 bees 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 leaf 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 shrubs, and while often unnoticed, and it may be only the some are evergreen plants, all of the species activity of large numbers of insects visiting considered below are deciduous. The wood 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- flower. ish. The heart wood of several of the tropical Initially green, hard, and with their high species, especially that of D. ebenum Koenig tannin 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 cultivar, 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 ripening. As study. From what is known, persimmons are a matter of fact, some cultivars 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 apples. are restricted to different individual plants, Ripe persimmons may either contain seeds 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 ovary of a carpellate individual plant, 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- parthenocarpy. 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- Diospyros virginiana in the Arnold Arbore- bles that of the flowering dogwood, Cornus tum that regularly produces seed-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 plum about 4 centimeters in diameter, without pollination 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 Texas. 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.

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