Diospyros thus avoided by most herbivores; when ripe they are eagerly eaten by many animals however, such as the rare Aders' duiker ("Cephalophus adersi"). The foliage is used as food by the larvae of numerous Lepidoptera species: Arctiidae: Geometridae: Limacodidae: Lycaenidae: Nymphalidae: Saturniidae: Tortricidae: An economically significant plant pathogen infecting many "Diospyros" species – "D. hispida", kaki persimmon ("D. kaki"), date-plum ("D. lotus"), Texas persimmon ("D. texana"), Coromandel ebony ("D. melanoxylon") and probably others – is the sac fungus "Pseudocercospora kaki", which causes a leaf spot disease. The genus includes several plants of commercial importance, either for their edible fruit (persimmons)
Buckeye rot of tomato portion of crop yield in the United States as well as India. The relatively small genome size of "Phytophthora parasitica" compared to "Phytophthora infestans" gives researchers the unique ability to further examine its ability to cause disease. Buckeye rot of tomato affects tomato plants, although there are many other plants that are affected, including pepper, potato, tobacco, pineapple, and various other hosts. Upon infection, brown and greyish-green water soaked spots appear on the fruit. These spots develop into lesions that resemble the markings of a bull's eye with alternating dark and light brown concentric rings. These are very smooth lesions,