Diospyros dichrophylla Diospyros dichrophylla Diospyros dichrophylla (Gand.) De Winter aka poison star-apple is a Southern African tree belonging to the ebony family of Ebenaceae and closely related to the Persimmon ("Diospyros kaki"). Some authors describe it as being poisonous, which is puzzling as generally ripe fruits from this genus are quite tasty and edible, though green fruits are rich in tannins. The genus of "Diospyros" includes some 700 species, many of which are ornamental and many which bear edible and often cultivated fruit. This species grows into a medium-sized tree of up to 15 m tall. It is multi-stemmed and forms a
Diospyros ebenum organized and wavy. Dry wood density is 1190 kg/m3. The tree is occurring in southern India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The variety of the wood found in North Sulawesi, Indonesia is "Diospyros ebenum Koenig". Known as කළුවර ගස් ("Kaluwara Gas") by Sinhalese people due to hard black wood of the tree. In Sri Lanka, it is illegal to harvest and sell ebony wood. It possesses the following valuable qualities: high wood hardness (twice as hard as oak), easy to polish (suitable for high-quality polishing, after which it becomes perfectly smooth), it has practically no pitting, provides glossy smooth surface, water