of New York 1 1 5 



PERSIMMON 



Diospyros virginiana, Linnaeus 



THE PERSIMMON is best known by its fruit, which is the 

 largest berry produced by any American forest tree. 

 There is no better way to get acquainted with this tree than 

 to try to eat its fruit before it is ripe. Its harsh puckery 

 taste draws the lips and chokes the throat. 



PERSIMMON 

 One-half natural size. 



The yellowish to white flowers appear in May. 



The fruit is a reddish-yellow pulpy berry, one to one and 

 one-half inches in diameter. The bitterness disappears with 

 full maturity. The leaves are simple, alternate, oval, shiny, 

 4 to 6 inches long, sharp-pointed, smooth along margin. 

 The twigs are reddish-brown, with rather large pith. They 

 bear broadly egg-shaped buds, arc marked with half-moon- 

 shaped leaf-scars with only one bundle-scar. The bark is 

 deeply furrowed, breaks into dark-gray to black squarish 

 blocks separated by furrows that are cinnamon-red along the 

 bottom. 



The wood is hard, heavy and strong. The heartwood is 

 brown to black; the sapwood is wide and white to yellow- 

 ish. It is used for golfstick heads and shuttles. 



The Persimmon is found from Rhode Island to Florida, 

 west to Kansas and Texas. It thrives best on the light sandy 

 soil of the warm South. In New York it occurs on Long 

 Island, Staten Island and in Westchester county. It rarely 

 exceeds 50 feet in height and 18 inches in diameter. 



