Diospyros virginiana, common persimmon
Coladonato, Milo 1992. Diospyros virginiana, common persimmon. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/diovir
| Abbreviation | Common Name | Scientific Name | Classification | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plants | ||||
| DIOVIR | common persimmon | Diospyros virginiana | Life Form: Plants/Tree Order: Ebenales Family: Ebenaceae Genus: Diospyros | Fed. Protected: No Nativity: Native Invasiveness: Noninvasive |
Taxonomy
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
Synonyms
- None
Other Common Names
persimmon, simmon, possumwood, eastern persimmon, Florida persimmon
General Distribution
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].
States and Provinces
- United States: AL AR CT DE FL GA IL KS KY LA MD MS MO NJ NC OH OK PA SC TN TX VA WV
Site Characteristics
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), tuliptree (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].
Plant Communities
Common persimmon is found in many plant associations, but it is not an indicator of any particular habitat [6,33].
Botanical Description
Common persimmon, Washington, DC.
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].
Raunkiaer Life Form (Raunkiaer 1934)
- Phanerophyte
Seasonal Development
The flowers of common persimmon bloom from March to June; its fruit ripens from September to November [30].
Regeneration Processes
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].
Successional Status
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.
Immediate Fire Effects
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].
Postfire Regeneration Strategy (Stickney 1989)
- Tree with adventitious-bud rootcrown/ soboliferous species root sucker
- Initial-offsite colonizer (offsite, initial community)
Fire Adaptations
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].
Plant Response to Fire
Common persimmon sprouts vigorously following fire [15]. After a summer and winter burn in Oklahoma, common persimmon stem density increases in postfire year 1, reported as stems per hectare, were as follows [1]:
Summer burn | Late-winter burn | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preburn | Postburn | Preburn | Postburn |
| 542 | 750 | 17 | 583 |
Fire Regimes
For fire regime information, search FEIS for this species by entering the species name or acronym on the home page and selecting “Fire Regime” as the publication type.
Fire Management Considerations
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].
Federal Status
None
Other Status
No entry.
Importance to Wildlife and Livestock
Common persimmon fruits, Alabama.
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].
Palatability and Nutritional Value
The seeds and fruits of common persimmon are generally low in crude protein, crude fat, and calcium, but high in nitrogen-free extract and tannin [3,15].
Cover Value
No entry.
Value for Rehabilitation or Restoration of Disturbed Sites
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].
Other Uses
Ripe fruit can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried. 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].
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].
Other Management Considerations
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 persimmon 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].
Table A1— Forest and range ecosystems, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) physiographic regions, Kuchler plant associations, Society for American Foresters (SAF) forest cover types, and Society for Rangeland Management (SRM) rangeland cover types in which this species occurs.
Forest and Range Ecosystems (Garrison et al. 1977)
- FRES12 Longleaf - slash pine
- FRES13 Loblolly - shortleaf pine
- FRES14 Oak - pine
- FRES15 Oak - hickory
- FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
BLM Physiographic Regions (Bernard and Brown 1977)
- No entry.
Kuchler Plant Associations (Kuchler 1964)
- 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
SAF Cover Types (Eyre 1980)
- 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
SRM Rangeland Cover Types (Shiflet 1994)
- No entry.
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