Persimmon

Diospyros kaki

Ebenaceae

An East Asian ebony fruit — jelly when an astringent type is truly ripe, or crisp if it is a Fuyu, and a mistake if you guess wrong.

Ripe fruit is food. Unripe astringent types will furr the mouth and can ball in the gut if you eat a firm Hachiya like an apple.

Parts used: Ripe fruit
Traditional notes: Kitchen fruit · Dried hoshigaki · Traditional East Asian autumn fruit
Grow · USDA 6b: Tree, USDA 7–10 for many kaki; American persimmon colder A named graft so you know astringent from not. In work: Sep · Oct · Nov
Harvest: Fuyu fully colored and still firm. Hachiya fully colored and soft, often after a frost.

Label the type on the trunk. Future you will not remember.
Possums work the night shift.

Safety

Firm astringent fruit in quantity Known persimmon allergy (rare)

Lore

Japanese kaki, Chinese shì. Hoshigaki is a hand-massaged dried fruit that looks like a sugar-dusted jewel. The American ‘simmon’ of the South is a different species that the possum harvests on schedule. Diospyros is ‘fruit of the gods,’ which is a lot of Greek for a tree that will still trick you if you eat it early.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.