Photo: Cephas — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 7 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 rhombifolia ("diamond-leaf" or "princess" persimmon) is grown chiefly as an ornamental and bonsai subject for its small rhombic leaves — which color gold and red in autumn — and its miniature, dreidel-shaped orange fruit, rather than as a dessert fruit; the fruit is edible but small and mainly of curiosity value compared with Diospyros kaki.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Oct–Nov (astringent types improve after frost)
- Mature size
- Small tree 3–7 m; often grown as bonsai
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Native to southeastern China.
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 3–5 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow to moderate, forming a dense, bushy plant.
- Spacing
- 150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Small, diamond (rhomboid)-shaped leaves, glossy, turning gold and red in autumn — the source of both the "diamond-leaf" common name and its popularity in bonsai.
- Root system
- Fibrous and moderately deep, and unusually tolerant of the hard root pruning bonsai culture demands — part of why it became a bonsai standard. It is also used as a rootstock for other persimmons.
- Fruit description
- Small, glossy orange fruit around 2-2.5 cm, distinctively dreidel/top-shaped with a persistent calyx; unripe fruit exudes a lacquer-like sap. Ripe pulp is sweet, but the fruit is grown mainly for ornamental interest rather than as a substantial dessert fruit.
- Propagation
- Grown from seed; commonly grafted as an ornamental or bonsai subject, and also used as a rootstock for other persimmon species. Seedling sex cannot be determined until the plant matures and flowers.
- Pollination
- Dioecious — separate male and female plants are needed, and since seedlings' sex is only apparent once they flower, growers typically rely on known-flowering or grafted stock to ensure a fruiting female.
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.
Growing guide
How it spreads. A dense, wide, bushy shrub or small tree — typically kept to about 2-2.5 m tall and 1-1.2 m wide in cultivation (up to 8 m reported in the wild) — not documented as suckering.
Growing tips. Reported hardy to roughly -12 to -18°C (about USDA zone 7a-7b), making it one of the more cold-tolerant ornamental Diospyros, though it prefers consistently moist soil and does not tolerate drought well. Widely grown as a bonsai subject for its small diamond-shaped leaves and miniature fruit.
Grow journal
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