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
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",