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Native Plant Society of Texas

Clear Lake Chapter

Plant of the Month: Common Persimmon

Presented by Hilary Gibbs
October 12, 2020

Botanical name: Diospyros virginiana
Common names: Common Persimmon, Possumwood, Date Plum, Winter Plum, Jove’s Fruit
Family: Ebenaceae (Ebony)

[MUSIC—EASY AND FUN]

[HILARY] This is a Common Persimmon. It’s in the family Ebenaceae, the ebony family; Diospyros virginiana.

So, there were some really biological vocabulary words in the books I read, and I did not include them all. I learned a couple of them. So, the physical characteristics. The leaves simple, alternate, deciduous, ovate, oblong. The word glabrous I learned means not hairy. I guess it’s always good to have a very specific word. The bark is gray-brown to nearly black, up to an inch thick; looks like alligator leather.

The fruit and seeds. There’s a word I didn’t know before, subglobose. It just means like a squashed circle. Subglobose, orangish, several-seeded berry about an inch and a half in diameter. The seeds are not poisonous, but they can cause inflammation of the small intestine. And they don’t recommend that you feed these to dogs or your pets probably, although we did find out today that turtles really like them.

Traditionally, the seeds are ground and roasted. I don’t know anyone with that tradition but it’d be interesting if anyone there can tell me if that’s true. To be safe try this in small quantities only and do not eat the seeds raw.

Diospyros means fruit of the gods in Greek. Early Texas settlers once considered persimmons as good as manna from heaven.

Until they ripen, the persimmons are extremely astringent but when mature, says especially after a frost, but of course we don’t have any frosts here—the persimmon season right now is coming to an end, and we haven’t had frost—they do taste wonderfully sugary. They’re good in smoothies, puddings, and cakes.

They’re eaten by birds, raccoons, opossums, deer, foxes, and squirrels. And Tom found two box turtles in an area at the nature center yesterday and looked up about them and found that box turtles really like persimmons.

So, there’s the distribution. Says habitat on deep rich bottomlands or higher sandy well-drained soil and the one I’m familiar with is by the north entrance to Clear Lake Park. And we gather the persimmons there two, three times a week. And we smoosh them and put the smoosh in the freezer for smoothies.

I did plant a lot of the seeds last year, but I couldn’t get my seedlings to go more than three or four inches tall, so there must be a trick to it.

As a member of the ebony family, persimmon is a hard and heavy wood. It’s just not black. The wood has been used for shuttles, shoe lasts, plane stocks, mallets, tool handles, and wooden golf club heads. And I asked Tom who everyone may know works with wood a lot, I said, do they still really do that? He said, “Oh yes, it’s still very important.” And there are all sorts of stories about how people get the persimmon wood and then they dye it black and then they sell it for a lot more money as ebony. And that’s what it says there. It’s a good substitute but it’s a good idea to know what you have so you’re not paying too much for it.

And there’s Tom’s favorite persimmon fro club. So, if you feel like hitting anything, very useful tool that.

So, there is a Texas Persimmon. It’s a restricted species found mainly in southern and western Texas on rich moist soil or drier rocky slopes. There might be one at the medical center. My daughter-in-law sent me pictures of something she’d seen out there and it looked a lot like that. It has a very different fruit though. It says fruit is a black berry with triangular seeds, so that sounds quite different than the one we were looking at. That fruit is edible and a source of a purple black dye.

And these are three persimmon seedlings that I got from Cliff Grim, who managed to get his more than a couple of inches tall. When I picked these up from him, he had them in a dish pan full of water, so I’m not sure if he’d always kept them in a couple of inches of water, but I did that.

Thank you.

[MUSIC—AND THAT’S IT]

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About the Region

2026 Fall Symposium Logo

This low-elevations region of Texas extends inland from the barrier islands, about 60 or so miles, and stretches from Brownsville to Louisiana. In total, it covers about 9.5 million acres, with a high point of 150 feet in elevation. More than 1000 species of plants can be found in this region. On the southern end, species more common in Mexico (such as Sabal mexicana) and Central America occur.

The barrier islands provide us with dune systems, and clay flats to the inland side, which have species found in these areas alone. Many plants here, such as Ipomoea pes-caprae (beach morning glory), can be found throughout tropical regions of the globe. I’ve encountered the same species on the beaches of Guam.

Once inland, vast marshes and wet prairies occur. Occasionally, oak (Quercus fusiformis) groves can be found. Common grasses include species of Bothriochloa, Paspalum, and Sporobolus; eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides); and switchgrass (Panicum species). Many rivers and creeks cut through the Gulf Prairies, and along these riparian areas various species of trees, Sabal minor, and other plants adapted to clay soils can be found. Due to overgrazing, farming, and fire suppression, woody species such as mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and huisache (Acacia farnesiana), and invasive species such as chinaberry (Melia azedarach), Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), and Chinese tallow (Sapium sebiferum) have increased and displaced our native flora.

Source: Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason