While most everyone knows about, or has had a first hand experience with a persimmon, few gardeners have ventured to grow anything outside of two species, our native, Diospyros virginiana, and the Japanese persimmon, Diospyros kaki. Would you believe that there are an astounding 787 species of persimmon. In fruit this week at JLBG is the rarely cultivated Diospyros cathayensis (Cathay persimmon), an evergreen species that hails from Southern China, up to 5,000′ elevation. While it can reportedly reach 30′ in the wild, I’ve never seen one in cultivation top 10′ tall.
The oldest cultivated plant we know, is the 29 year-old specimen at the JC Raulston Arboretum. I visited the JCRA specimen last week, and found no sign of fruit, despite it being quite massive in spread. It’s certainly large enough to flower, so most likely its missing a mate, since most persimmons require a male and female plant to set fruit. We have two clones at JLBG, growing about 500′ apart. One is a 7 year-old seedling from the JCRA plant, and a 20 year-old specimen from plantsman, Barry Yinger. We’re guessing that our Yinger specimen, which has never fruited, is a male, while the JCRA seedling, which has a nice crop of fruit, is obviously a female. Interestingly, we can’t find any reference to any named clones of this species.
What does it taste like?
We’re waiting for a frost to try it.
I am growing the Texas persimmon in Southern Pines, NC. It develops beautiful exfoliating bark as it ages and has black fruit when ripe. Its leaves are very small compared to the leaves of our locally native persimmon.
Great to know it’s thriving nearby.
Have you ever tried growing Diospyros texana?
It is very rare in cultivation and I wonder if this is because of horticultural issues or just lack of awareness
Funny you should ask, as we just sowed seed a month ago, and are waiting for germination. In this case, it’s probably a case of just being little-known in horticultural circles.
Fruit shape is very round vs Fuyu