Photo: homeredwardprice — CC BY 2.0 · 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 texana ("Texas persimmon" or "black persimmon") is a small, often multi-trunked tree grown as much for its smooth, pale gray-to-white peeling bark as for its fruit — small (about 2 cm), round, black, sweet fruit borne only on female trees, eaten fresh (a flavor often likened to prunes) or used in jams, quite different from the larger orange fruit of Diospyros kaki or Diospyros virginiana.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Oct–Nov (astringent types improve after frost)
- Mature size
- Small tree or large shrub 3–10 m, usually multi-stemmed, with smooth peeling grey bark
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5
- Environment
- Semi-arid
- Native range
- Endemic to southern and central Texas (Rio Grande Plains, Edwards Plateau, and the southeastern Trans-Pecos) and northern Mexico (Nuevo León, Coahuila, Tamaulipas), typically on rocky slopes, uplands, and arroyos from about 1,100-5,700 ft elevation.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 3–5 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow.
- Spacing
- 350 cm (138 in) apart — about 12 m² (132 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Small, simple, oval-to-obovate leaves roughly 2.5-5 cm long, glossy dark green above and softly fuzzy pale beneath, with margins slightly rolled under and often a notched tip — a thick (sclerophyllous) texture suited to semiarid conditions.
- Root system
- Regenerates from an adventitious-bud root crown that resprouts readily after top damage or fire, rather than depending on a strong taproot; not documented as a root-suckering colonizer.
- Fruit description
- Round fruit about 2 cm (up to 1 inch) across, black and sweet when fully ripe, with a flavor often compared to prunes — borne only on female trees and a favorite food of birds and mammals; ripens from late July into September.
- Propagation
- By seed — nondormant and germinating readily (50-90%) once washed free of fruit pulp, at temperatures of roughly 68-86°F; also dispersed naturally by birds and mammals that eat the fruit.
- Pollination
- Dioecious, flowering February-June with fruit ripening August-September; both a male and a female plant are needed for fruit.
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
Fertilizing. Adapted to poor, rocky, calcareous or clay soils typical of its semiarid native range and generally needs no supplemental feeding; water regularly through the first growing season to help establish deep roots.
How it spreads. Does not rely on a prominent taproot the way Diospyros virginiana does — instead regenerates from an adventitious-bud root crown, resprouting vigorously from the base after fire or damage rather than spreading outward by root suckers.
Growing tips. Naturally slow-growing (as little as 2.0-3.6 ft of height over five years), tolerant of drought, heat, and poor rocky soils. Leaves are semi-evergreen to evergreen in the milder southern part of its range but drought/cold deciduous at the northern edge of its range — marginal at the colder end of zone 7, and best sited with reflected heat and wind protection there. Recovers well from fire top-kill by resprouting from the root crown.
Grow journal
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