Diospyros texana "D. texana" favors riparian zones, prairie margins, and rocky slopes. It prefers well-drained, alkaline soils]. The sapwood of Texas persimmon is clear yellow, while the heartwood, found only in very large trees, is black (ebony), like that of the related "D. ebenum". The heartwood is hard and dense and takes a high polish. It is used to make engraving blocks, artwork, and tools. The fleshy berries are edible and sweet when ripe and are used in puddings and custards; they are also relished by many species of birds and mammals. They were traditionally used by Native Americans to make a
Genetically modified tomato cold and drought tolerance in transgenic "Arabidopsis thaliana" plants, was inserted into the tomato. This resulted in increased drought tolerance, but did not appear to have any effect on cold tolerance. Overexpressing a vacuolar Na/H antiport ("AtNHX1") from "A. thaliana" lead to salt accumulating in the leaves of the plants, but not in the fruit and allowed them to grow more in salt solutions than wildtype plants. They were the first salt-tolerant, edible plants ever created. Tobacco osmotic genes overexpressed in tomatoes produced plants that held a higher water content than wildtype plants increasing tolerance to drought and salt stress.