American Persimmon
The American persimmon is common in the South Atlantic and Gulf states, abundant in the Mississippi river basin, and can also be found in southern parts of Canada. It coevolved with plant-eating megafauna like the mastodon. The term "persimmon" comes from the Algonquin Indigenous peoples which was a staple in the diets of many Native Americans in the north and south east, along with beans, squash, maize, and walnuts. The tree wood is heavy, close-grained and used for woodturning. The heartwood, which can take a century to develop, is a true ebony with black close-grain. The tree also produces beautiful and fragrant flowers making this an excellent ornamental in residential landscapes.
Fruit: The fruit is high in vitamin C, and can be very astringent when unripe. It provides food for many birds, raccoons, skunks, white-tailed deer, foxes, flying squirrels and opossums. When ripe the fruit is great for pies, pudding, jam, molasses, vinegars, and candy, or fermented into brandy and beer-like brews! The fruits have a long shelf life and also dry very well. The leaves can be used in herbal tea and the roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute!
Planting: American persimmons can tolerate winter temperatures down to –35°C, and thrive in hardiness zone 5, but will prefer warmer microclimates in this colder edge of their range (for example, if planted in a fully wind-exposed site in the country in zone 5b they may die back to the ground in a cold winter). They flourish in moist, well-drained, sandy soils but are also highly adaptable to various climates and can tolerate hot, dry conditions, poor soils, and wind.
Pollination: The tree is dioecious (either male or female) which means a single tree will have either 'male' aka staminate flowers (flowers with stamens) that shed pollen, or 'female' aka pistillate flowers (flowers with pistils) that make fruit. Whereas most fruit trees require pollination in order to set fruit, female American persimmon trees are generally capable of making fruit without pollination - in this case, the fruit tends to be seedless.
I say 'generally' or 'tends to' because American persimmon live fascinating sexual lives - some trees can occasionally have both types of flowers on one tree (so you may have a 'female' tree with 'male' flowers one spring that you don't even notice unless you look closely), or they can change sexes entirely later in life. The literature on the species is a little conflicting when you go digging, but all these scenarios and more have been reported.
Long story short: a lone female persimmon should be capable of setting fruit, which will likely be seedless. If you have both male and female trees, the female trees will produce fruit with seeds.
Since our trees are seedlings, they will be either male or female trees, with no way of knowing until they start producing flowers. We recommend buying two or more to ensure you get at least some female, fruit-bearing trees.
Parentage: Our seeds are sourced from an established population in southern Ontario.
Age and size: Our persimmon seedlings are one-year old, and between 12-20" tall.
References:
Wikipedia Diospyros_Virginiana
Image credits:
Matt Soltys
