AMERICAN POMOEOGICAG SOCIETY 
48 
THE NATIVE PERSIMMON.— DIOSPYROS VIRGINIANA. 
W. F. Fletcher, Washington, D. C. 
The native persimmon, ranging over the southeastern quarter of the United 
States, is probably the least appreciated of our hardy fruits. The tree is 
among the hardiest of the regional flora; it is an abundant and regular 
bearer, and the fruit ranks high in both quality and food value. Few 
horticulturists have given it any attention whatever, and very little effort 
has been expended on the improvement of varieties. 
The slow horticultual progress of this fruit is due; first, to the earliest 
explorers speaking of it as a “plum” (DeSoto, Jan de Laet, John Smith) and 
thus the earlier horticulturists directing their attention to the various types 
of “prunus” found here; second, to prejudice on account of the strongly as- 
tringent qualities of the fruit preceding its full ripeness; third, to a belief, 
strengthened by constant reiteration, that the fruit is not fit for use until 
after frost thus causing the loss of many of the best early varieties and re- 
ducing the season of use ; and fourth, to some little trouble in the propagation 
of the better sorts found among the wild trees. 
History. 
Botanical distribution. Of the two hundred different species of Diospy- 
ros there is but one of importance that is indigenous to the United States. 
That one, the common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is found only in the 
southeast quarter of the country, extending east of the Alleghanies as far 
north as New Haven, Connecticut, and west of the Alleghanies from the 
Valley of the Colorado River in Texas to Eastern Kansas, Southeastern Iowa 
and Southern Ohio. 
Description. The tree is easily recognized by its rough finely checked 
bark. It grows either in open fields or woods on high sandy, clayey, stony, 
or rocky soil or in the muck of the flatwoods where water stands part of the 
time, and prefers a goodly amount of sunshine and moisture. 
In size it varies from a shrub when in first bearing to a tree fifty feet 
in height in the open, and rarely to one hundred feet in the forest. The 
top is round to conical with spreading, often pendulous branches; leaves 
elliptical, acuminate, glossy above, pubescent beneath, three to six inches 
long, often falling in autumn with little change of color; flowers short 
stalked, single or in threes, one-third to three-fourths inch long, waxy, 
greenish-yellow to milky-white, monecious or diecious; May and June; 
fruit an oblate to oblong berry, usually pale orange or yellow in color and 
often blushed, changing to dull translucent red, generally astringent until 
fully ripe. 
Hoticultural. Probably DeSoto, during the autumn of 1539, was the 
first European to learn the value of the persimmon as food. Other early 
explorers made enthusiastic reports of the delicious “plums” found grow- 
ing here. The Indians used the fruit for making bread but no trace of 
cultivated trees has been found. The early settlers found and used the 
persimmon practically as those who know the fruit use it today. 
