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
Diospyros squarrosa Diospyros squarrosa Diospyros squarrosa, the rigid star-berry, is a dioecious, deciduous shrub or small tree that is native to the tropical and subtropical Afrotropics. Its wood and edible, fleshy fruit are harvested locally. The bark is grey to brown, and smooth with shallow longitudinal fissures. It grows from 2 to 10 metres tall, and may start flowering while still small. They produce flowers from early to midsummer, which are greenish to creamy-white and fragrant. The flowers are axillary, in lax cymes in males plants, and solitary in female plants. The near-spherical fruit (of female plants) are some 2 cm in