Persimmon Persimmon The persimmon (sometimes spelled persimon) is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus "Diospyros". The most widely cultivated of these is the Asian or Japanese persimmon, "Diospyros kaki". "Diospyros" is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-persimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. The word "Diospyros" comes from the ancient Greek words "dios" ("δῐος") and "pyron" ("πῡρον"). A popular etymology construed this as "divine fruit", or as meaning "wheat of Zeus" or "God's pear" and "Jove's fire". The dio-, as shown by the short vowel 'i' has nothing
Wildlife of Mauritius heathland in the mountains. Most of this natural vegetation has been destroyed and what remains is threatened by the spread of introduced plants. Native trees include eleven surviving species of Mauritius ebony ("Diospyros tesselaria", "Diospyros egrettarum", "Diospyros revaughanii", "Diospyros melanida", "Diospyros leucomelas" and several others), takamaka ("Calophyllum tacamahaca"), manglier vert ("Sideroxylon cinereum"), manglier rouge ("Sideroxylon puberulum"), Ox tree ("Polyscias maraisiana"), Bois de Natte ("Labourdonnaisia" species) and a range of other indigenous and endemic tree species. The palm species that are indigenous to the island of Mauritius comprise "Acanthophoenix rubra" (possibly other species), "Dictyosperma album (var. album & conjugatum)", "Hyophorbe amaricaulis",