Mariton: Persimmons

by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager.  Photos by Carole Mebus.

When we had the heavy frost Saturday morning, one of the first things I thought about was the Persimmons.  This year the tree is loaded with fruit (even though we had a late spring frost that hit most fruit trees).  Persimmon (Diospyrous virginiana) is a neat native tree that belongs in the ebony family.  It has fleshy orange fruit about 1 inch in diameter.  The fruit is astringent and will pucker your mouth up – that is until it is frosted.  Then it becomes sweet.  The trick is that the first couple frosts don’t always affect all of the fruit on the tree.  So, it is a little like roulette when you bite into one.

We took a closer look on the Tuesday Walk, but please leave the fruit for the wildlife.