Common Persimmon

common persimmon
persimmon
simmon
possumwood
eastern persimmon
Florida persimmon

More info for the terms: dioecious, fruit, tree

Common persimmon is a slow-growing, thicket-forming, dioecious,
deciduous tree up to 70 feet (21 m) but generally less than 40 feet (12
m) tall [8].  It has a rounded or conical crown with the branches
spreading at right angles.  The twigs are self-pruning and form an
irregular shaped crown.  The leaves are simple, alternate, entire, and
elliptical to oblong.  The fruit is a persistent spherical berry; each
berry contains one to eight flat seeds [10,13,31].

More info for the term: forest

Common persimmon is distributed from southern Connecticut and Long
Island, New York to southern Florida.  Inland it occurs in central
Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, and central Illinois to
southeastern Iowa; and southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma to the Valley of
the Colorado River in Texas.  It does not grow in the main range of the
Appalachian Mountains, nor in much of the oak-hickory forest type of the
Allegheny Plateau [8,12,15].

More info for the terms: fire regime, root crown

Common persimmon is well adapted to fire.  It sprouts readily from the
roots and root crown when aboveground portions are killed by fire
[2,14,15].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the term: fire exclusion

Periodic fires have been useful in controlling common persimmon by
preventing it from reaching the overstory in southern pine forests.
However, common persimmon is known to decrease with fire exclusion [18].

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More info for the term: phanerophyte

  
Phanerophyte

More info for the terms: shrubs, swamp, tree

Common persimmon grows on a wide variety of sites but grows best on
terraces of large streams and river bottoms.  It grows best on alluvial
soils such as clays and heavy loams.  In the Mississippi Delta, usual
sites are wet flats, shallow sloughs, and swamp margins.  In the Midwest
it grows on poorly drained upland sites, but growth there is very slow
[6,17,20,23].

Common overstory associates not listed under Distribution and Occurrence
include eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), sugar maple (Acer
saccharum), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera),, boxelder (Acer
negundo), red maple (A. rubrum), sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), and
cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia).  Common shrubs and noncommercial tree
associates include swamp-privet (Forestiera acuminata), rough-leaf
dogwood (Cornus drummondii), hawthorns (Crataegus spp.), water-elm
(Planera acquatica), shining sumac (Rhus copallina), and smooth sumac
(R. glabra) [6,15,26].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

More info for the term: hardwood

    64  Sassafras - persimmon
    70  Longleaf pine
    72  Southern scrub oak
    80  Loblolly pine - shortleaf pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    82  Loblolly pine - hardwood
    83  Longleaf pine - slash pine
    84  Slash pine
    92  Sweetgum - willow oak
    93  Sugarberry - American elm - green ash
    96  Overcup oak - water hickory
   101  Baldcypress
   102  Baldscypress - tupelo

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES12  Longleaf - slash pine
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

   KO89  Black Belt
   K090  Live oak - sea oats
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K113  Southern floodplain forest

More info for the term: top-kill

Common persimmon in southern pine forests can be killed by severe fires
that char the soil and kill the roots and rootstocks.  Less severe fires
top-kill the plant [18].

More info for the term: fruit

In Indiana and Ohio, the leaves and twigs of common persimmon are an
important supplementary fall and winter food for white-tailed deer
[29,34].  The fruit is an important food for squirrel, fox, coyote,
racoon, opossum, and quail [7,22].  Hogs relish the fruit of common
persimmon, but it is of little value to other livestock and is
considered a nuisance [15].

Common persimmon is found in many plant associations, but it is not an
indicator of any particular habitat [6,33].

More info for the term: tree

Tree

More info for the term: tree

Dense thickets of common persimmon are considered a nuisance in open
fields and pastures.  On abandoned fields, where persimmon is an
invader, it is classed as a weed species because it fails to reach
commercial size [5].  Common persimmon is easily defoliated with a 20
percent solution of Garlon 4 but will sprout readily from the stems and
roots after treatment.  Treatment is most effective in May when leaves
are fully expanded [4,19,27].

Damaging agents:  The principal defoliators of common persimmom are the
webworm (Seiarctica echo) and the hickory horned devil (Citheronia
regalis).  The fungus Cephalosporium diospyri causes persimmon wilt and
kills many trees in the Southeast.  The disease is characterized by a
wilting of the leaves followed by defoliation and death of the branches
from the top down.  An infected tree lives 1 or 2 years after the
wilting appears.  Diseased trees should be burned, and bruises on
healthy tree should be covered with pitch or wax to prevent entry by
wind-borne spores [15,30].

The seeds and fruits of common persimmon are generally low in crude
protein, crude fat, and calcim, but high in nitrogen-free extract and
tannin [3,15].

     AL  AR  CT  DE  FL  GA  IL  KS  KY  LA
     MD  MS  MO  NJ  NC  OH  OK  PA  SC  TN
     TX  VA  WV

More info for the term: fruit

The unripe fruit and inner bark of common persimmon are sometimes used
in the treatment of fever, diarrhea, and hemorrhage.  Indelible ink can
also be made from the fruit.  Common persimmon is sometimes planted as
an ornamental; the flowers are used in the production of honey [30,36].

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More info for the term: fruit

The flowers of common persimmon bloom from March to June; its fruit
ripens from September to November [30].

More info for the term: density

Common persimmon sprouts vigorously following fire [15].  After a summer
and winter burn in Oklahoma, common persimmon stem density increases in
postfire year 1 were as follows [1]:

          Species density (stem/ha)

summer burn                     late-winter burn

preburn   postburn              preburn    postburn
  542       750                   17         583

More info for the terms: root sucker, soboliferous, tree

   Tree with adventitious-bud rootcrown/ soboliferous species root sucker
   Initial-offsite colonizer (offsite, initial community)

More info for the terms: fruit, root collar, seed

Common persimmon reproduces vegetatively and by seed.  The optimum
fruit-bearing age is 25 to 50 years, but 10-year-old trees sometimes
bear fruit.  Good seed crops are borne every 2 years, with light crops
in intervening years [28,30].  The seed is disseminated by birds and
animals that feed on the fruits, and to some extent, by overflow water
in low bottomlands [15].

Vegetative Reproduction:  Common persimmon will sprout from the stump or
develop from root suckers.  Sprouting from the root collar is common
after fire or cutting [36].

More info on this topic.

Obligate Initial Community Species.

Common persimmon is very tolerant of shade.  It can persist in the
understory for many years.  Its response to release is not definitely
known but probably not very good.  Common persimmon competes very well
with almost any plant under harsh conditions.

The scientific name for common persimmon is Diospyros virginiana L.
[13]. Varieties include [10,24,36]:

D. virginiana L. var. virginiana - typical common persimmon
D. virginiana var. pubescens (Pursch) Dipp. - fuzzy common persimmon
D. virginiana var. platycarpa Sarg. - Oklahoma common persimmon
D. virginiana var. mosieri (Small) Sarg. - Florida persimmon

More info for the term: seed

Common persimmon sends down a deep taproot which makes it a good species
for erosion control.  It is, however, difficult to transplant [15].
Propagation is by seed stratified at 41 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (5-10
deg C) for 365 days and sown in the spring.  Germination is about 80
percent.  Root cuttings 6 to 8 inches (15-20 cm) long and 1/3 inch (0.85
cm) in diameter can also be used provided the ends are sealed with pitch
or wax to prevent rot [36].

The wood of common persimmon is hard, smooth, and even textured.  It is
used for turnery, plane stocks, veneer, golf club heads, and
occasionally low-grade lumber [8,36].