Persimmon, Diospyros virginiana L., fruit can be both
educational and fun especially due to the astringent unripe fruit. This astringency
varies widely, resulting in numerous cultivar selections for flavor. One of the best examples of using an astringent
persimmon was when I gave a Yankee one and there was just enough delay before
the astringency became obvious that she was in the middle of saying how good
it was when she got "a weird feeling" that suddenly came over her mouth. I don’t even like ripe persimmons due to the
mushy mealy texture, therefore, I don’t even want to take a chance at wasting money to try an
exotic persimmon, but I'll go as far as biting a green wild persimmon
just to get somebody else to try one.
Persimmon wood used to be valuable due to the use for golf club heads, but
the introduction of synthetic materials for the wood heads made persimmon wood relatively worthless.
The ebony mentioned along with ivory in Ezekiel 27:15 is the heartwood of the related D. ebenum J. Koenig ex Retz. or D. ebenaster auct. non Retz., and both are synonymous with D. revoluta Poir., which is native to southern India and Ceylon. Eben is the Hebrew word for stone and the name Ebenezer means stone of my help.
Persimmons are dioecious, where trees are either male or female, therefore, the sex of a seed grown tree is unknown until maturity. The photo shows male flowers considering how this tree never bore any fruit, but I didn't include persimmon in the wildflower list because the flowers are relatively small and inconspicuous especially due to usually being far above the ground except for when the male flowers are spent and drop off the tree. At least persimmon is also a honey plant, and the male trees may even produce more nectar since it is so important that the bees get covered with pollen before visiting the female flowers.
The largest persimmon tree in
