Plant · P-427

American Persimmon

Diospyros virginiana

American persimmon fruit is bitterly astringent until it goes fully soft-ripe, usually only after the first hard frost, at which point it turns exquisitely rich and sweet. Left alone it suckers into a thicket, which makes it useful free hedge and coppice stock if the margin is mown or grazed, and a chore if it is not. Its fallen fruit draws foxes, opossums, raccoons, skunks and deer, so it works well as a deliberate wildlife decoy planted away from anything more vulnerable, and it tolerates growing near black walnut.