BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Diospyros virginiana | Common Persimmon 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Common persimmon is a slow-growing, thicket-forming, dioecious,
deciduous tree up to 70 feet (21 m) but generally less than 40 feet (12
m) tall [8].  It has a rounded or conical crown with the branches
spreading at right angles.  The twigs are self-pruning and form an
irregular shaped crown.  The leaves are simple, alternate, entire, and
elliptical to oblong.  The fruit is a persistent spherical berry; each
berry contains one to eight flat seeds [10,13,31].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Common persimmon reproduces vegetatively and by seed.  The optimum
fruit-bearing age is 25 to 50 years, but 10-year-old trees sometimes
bear fruit.  Good seed crops are borne every 2 years, with light crops
in intervening years [28,30].  The seed is disseminated by birds and
animals that feed on the fruits, and to some extent, by overflow water
in low bottomlands [15].

Vegetative Reproduction:  Common persimmon will sprout from the stump or
develop from root suckers.  Sprouting from the root collar is common
after fire or cutting [36].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Common persimmon grows on a wide variety of sites but grows best on
terraces of large streams and river bottoms.  It grows best on alluvial
soils such as clays and heavy loams.  In the Mississippi Delta, usual
sites are wet flats, shallow sloughs, and swamp margins.  In the Midwest
it grows on poorly drained upland sites, but growth there is very slow
[6,17,20,23].

Common overstory associates not listed under Distribution and Occurrence
include eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), sugar maple (Acer
saccharum), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera),, boxelder (Acer
negundo), red maple (A. rubrum), sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), and
cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia).  Common shrubs and noncommercial tree
associates include swamp-privet (Forestiera acuminata), rough-leaf
dogwood (Cornus drummondii), hawthorns (Crataegus spp.), water-elm
(Planera acquatica), shining sumac (Rhus copallina), and smooth sumac
(R. glabra) [6,15,26].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Obligate Initial Community Species.

Common persimmon is very tolerant of shade.  It can persist in the
understory for many years.  Its response to release is not definitely
known but probably not very good.  Common persimmon competes very well
with almost any plant under harsh conditions.


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
The flowers of common persimmon bloom from March to June; its fruit
ripens from September to November [30].

Related categories for Species: Diospyros virginiana | Common Persimmon