ironwood ebony

Photo: Lalithamba from India — CC BY 2.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Diospyros ferrea ("ironwood ebony") is a small evergreen tree of Old World tropical forests and coastal thickets, grown mainly for its dense, dark heartwood and its use in bonsai rather than for its fruit — the berry is small (to about 15 mm), woody-shelled, and recorded mainly as a famine food in parts of its range rather than a dessert fruit like Diospyros kaki.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Oct–Nov (astringent types improve after frost)

Mature size

Slow evergreen shrub or small tree 3–8 m; containerable, and a bonsai standard

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.5

Environment

Coastal tropical

Native range

Widespread across Old World tropics — from West Africa across India, Indo-China, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, through Malesia to northern Australia, Melanesia and Polynesia — growing in evergreen coastal broadleaf forest up to about 500 m, as well as drier forest margins, rocky savanna and coastal thickets.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Slow, especially after the seedling stage.

Spacing

400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, small obovate-oblong to spathulate leaves about 1-2.5 cm by 1-1.8 cm, leathery (coriaceous) in texture, with a cuneate to tapering base and a blunt or notched tip.

Root system

Seedlings establish a long taproot early on; no suckering or colonizing habit is documented for the species.

Fruit description

A small, woody-shelled, globose berry up to about 15 mm in diameter, yellow to brownish-red when ripe, containing 1-3 wedge-shaped seeds in a thin fleshy pulp — the pulp is edible when ripe but has been documented mainly as a famine food, quite unlike the large fleshy fruit of Diospyros kaki or Diospyros virginiana.

Propagation

Grown from fresh seed — the flesh should be removed since it inhibits germination, and seed must be sown promptly as viability drops fast; germination is quick (about a week) but seedlings put down a long taproot early and then grow decidedly slowly. Cutting propagation is not well documented for this species.

Pollination

Dioecious — separate male and female plants are needed for fruit and seed set.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.