0445 



DATE PLUM 



Family: EBENACEAE. 



Reproductive system: POLYGAMY, DlOECY. 



The date plum, Diospyros lotus, LINN., is a tree that grows about sixty feet high. 

 The leaves are large, alternate, entire, beautifully green, and terminate in a point. They 

 have small glandular spots on their undersurface, especially at the base. The flowers, 

 situated at the leaf axils, are sessile. They're in groups of three or four on the male plants 

 but are solitary on the female ones. The calyx is cup-shaped, with five teeth. The corolla, 

 inserted into the bottom of the calyx, is monopetalous with four or five lobes. The eight 

 stamens are situated at the base of the corolla; sometimes they're sterile. The ovary is 

 free, topped by a style with four stigmas. It becomes a berry surrounded at its base by the 

 calyx and divided into eight to ten monospermous compartments. 



FLOWERS: in June and July. 



RANGE: Italy; naturalized long ago in Languedoc. 



NOMENCLATURE. Lotus, because it was thought to be like the lotos of the 

 ancients whose properties were attributed to it. It was also called guyacana: it was 

 reputed to have qualities similar to those of the guaiac tree. German, der pseudolotus. 

 English, European date plum. Portuguese, loto de Italia. 



USES. The fruit is edible; it's astringent and not very tasty, but it's recommended 

 for dysentery and hemorrhages. In that case it has to be stewed with sugar, which reduces 

 the astringency. Botanists of old believed that this was the fruit eaten by the lotophagi 

 [Translator's note: a legendary people on the coast of North Africa whose diet of the 

 lotus induced forgetfulness and indolence. Related in the Odyssey.] M. Desfontaines 

 informs us that that was a species of jujube tree, Rhamnus lotus. 



