Seeing persimmons in an abandoned orchard at the Chiricahua National Monument pulled up a childhood memory and later I found myself pulling books off shelves and reading about the genus Diospyros and some of the worldwide species. With all my new knowledge I probably could have rattled on for several more minutes in this episode. Luckily for all, I contained myself, but you may want to look up some of the different species of Diospyros and their fascinating histories.
The American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is found from Connecticut, south to Florida, and west to Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma. It’s found it all kinds of situations, from forests, to prairies, to rocky slopes or maybe even in an abandoned orchard. And, this is interesting; in the Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas the fruit is sometimes purple and that may suggest “past hybridization with Diospyros texana” with its dark purple fruit. Cool!
The photos are mine.
