Persimmon

What is a persimmon?

In late autumn a persimmon is easy to recognise: the leaves have fallen, and the bare branches still carry dozens of glowing orange fruits, like lanterns. The fruits are round, flattened or pointed depending on the cultivar, with smooth skin and a green, four-lobed calyx. Some can be eaten crisp like an apple; others are mouth-puckeringly astringent until they turn soft as jelly.

Origin and growth

Diospyros kaki is native to China, Japan, Burma and the Himalayan region. It has been cultivated in East Asia for a very long time; Marco Polo already reported on the trade in persimmons in China. The tree grows to between 4.5 and 18 metres, usually with a rounded crown, and lives long. Its relatives include the ebony trees and the date-plum, Diospyros lotus, which is also used as a rootstock.

Requirements

Cold. The dormant tree is hardy, depending on cultivar to between about -10 and -18 °C. Late frosts after leaf-out are more dangerous than winter cold. Persimmons need roughly 100 to 400 hours below 7 °C in winter.

Water. Young trees need plenty of water, but drainage is essential. Morton recommends watering regularly from flowering until harvest. Hot, dry weather during bloom reduces fruit set, and the tree tends to shed blossoms and young fruit, also when it gets too much nitrogen.

Soil. Not demanding; deep, friable, moderately fertile soil is best.

Light. Full sun.

Fruit, use and harvest

Persimmons ripen in autumn and early winter. Non-astringent cultivars are picked and eaten firm. Astringent cultivars are either left to soften fully or picked firm and treated, for instance with carbon dioxide, to remove the astringency. Persimmons are eaten fresh, dried, as purée and in desserts. The tannin from unripe fruit has been used for dyeing, as a wood preservative and in sake brewing.

Constituents and effects

Persimmon fruit contains fibre, carotenoids and, in astringent kinds, large amounts of tannins, especially proanthocyanidins. A 2015 review attributes effects on blood lipids and blood sugar to these compounds, but the evidence comes mainly from animal and laboratory studies.

The best human evidence concerns the leaf. A 2025 meta-analysis of 16 randomised trials with 1,572 patients, many of them with heart or vascular disease, found that persimmon leaf extract added to standard treatment was associated with lower total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and slightly higher HDL cholesterol. All trials were conducted in China and none was blinded; the authors point to large differences between the studies and frequent methodological flaws and call for larger, better designed trials. In traditional Chinese medicine the dried calyx, shi di, has long been used against hiccups, and Morton mentions a decoction of calyx and fruit stalk for hiccups and coughs; in East Asia persimmon leaves are also drunk as tea. For the calyx we found no controlled clinical trials; its use rests on tradition. For the caution on unripe fruit, see the questions above.

In the food forest

In a food forest the persimmon belongs to the low to medium tree layer. Because it stands bare from late autumn until spring, the ground beneath it gets light in the cool season, a good place for winter herbs and bulbs. Its fallen fruit feeds birds and insects late into the year. Grafted trees on a suitable rootstock bear within a few years, and as a long-lived tree the persimmon belongs to the lasting structure of a planting.

In the Mediterranean climate

The persimmon has been at home around the Mediterranean for a long time. Morton reports that it has been grown on the Mediterranean coast of France and Italy for more than a century and reached Palestine in 1912. Today Spain is among the leading producers worldwide; in the Valencian Community almost 14,000 hectares produced about 441,000 tonnes in 2024. In Italy it is a familiar garden and orchard tree, often called loto.

The tree tolerates heat well. Difficult are summer drought during fruit growth, which leads to fruit drop and small fruit, and late frosts in spring. The persimmon is not invasive in Europe and is not on the EU list of invasive alien species.

Propagation and care

Persimmons are grafted onto seedlings of Diospyros kaki, Diospyros lotus or Diospyros virginiana; the choice of rootstock affects vigour and longevity. Some cultivars bear without pollination and are seedless. Pruning keeps the fruiting wood young and the crown open. Mulch and water in summer help the fruit to hold.

How Terra Humana understands it

At Sa Medada the persimmon is meant to be one of the reliable, long-lived fruit trees that connect the familiar Mediterranean orchard with the newer plants from warmer regions. A tree that shows its fruit after the leaves have fallen also marks the turn of the year on the slope.