# American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)

> Sweet orange fruit after frost, blocky alligator bark and a tree that grows nearly anywhere.

Also called common persimmon, eastern persimmon. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-persimmon/

![American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) young plant seen from above in dry grass, its newest leaves flushed red-bronze](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-persimmon-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 35 to 60 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, floodplain forests, old fields and edges
- Native range: 27 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA) and [Utah](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=UT)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Persimmons, September to November
- First crop: 4 to 9 years (heaviest crops at 25 to 50)
- Mature spread: 35 ft
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Honey tree, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Winter interest, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Native Edible Orchard.

## Notes

Persimmon is a pioneer of old fields and fencerows, tough enough for drought, clay and flooding alike. Its small bell flowers are a good nectar source, and the fruit, sweet as dates once fully ripe, feeds everything from deer to opossums. Northern-sourced seed ripens fruit in short seasons. Left on the bare branches after leaf fall, the fruit shows well in winter, and the deep taproot helps check erosion. Good for a home orchard row or a deer plot on ground too poor for apples.

## Size, growth and what to expect

American persimmon starts slowly, with seedlings about 8 inches tall after their first year over a strong taproot, and its growth stays generally slow. Our growth estimator models the tree at about a foot a year in youth, its figure for a slow grower. In a yard expect 35 to 60 feet, though trees in the best habitats may reach 70 to 80 feet. Trees typically live about 80 years, and some reach 150.

Seed-grown trees bear in 4 to 9 years, the heaviest crops come between 25 and 50 years, and good crops come every second year. Only the female trees fruit. The fruit is a round berry three quarters of an inch to 2 inches across, yellow to orange or dark red, ripening from September to November. Songbirds, raccoons, opossums, deer and wild turkeys eat it. The name persimmon comes from putchamin, an Algonquian word.

It grows wild from southern Connecticut to southern Florida, west through central Pennsylvania, southern Ohio and central Illinois to Iowa, and south through Kansas and Oklahoma into Texas.

## How to grow American Persimmon

American persimmon takes almost any site: dry clay, sandy fields, bottomland that floods in spring. Full sun gives the best fruit, though it tolerates light shade. It grows tall with a narrow crown, so allow 20 feet from buildings and 15 to 20 feet between trees.

Persimmon has a long taproot and dislikes being moved, so plant it small and plant it once. Plant dormant bare-root saplings in spring; dig a deep, narrow hole for the taproot, set the root flare at grade, and backfill with the soil you removed. Mulch a ring three inches deep, off the trunk. Seed can be sown in fall an inch deep in a screened bed.

Water weekly through the first summer. Persimmon leafs out late, often into June, so do not give up on a sapling that looks dead in May. Deer browse young trees, so use a tube or cage for two or three years. No pruning is needed.

Most trees are male or female, so plant several seedlings for fruit. Seedlings begin bearing after about six years. Roots sucker when cut, and ripe fruit drops, so keep it away from patios.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: common persimmon](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/common-persimmon)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Diospyros virginiana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/diospyros-virginiana/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Diospyros virginiana](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/DIVI5)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Diospyros virginiana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/diovir/all.html)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: persimmon, Diospyros virginiana](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_divi5.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Diospyros chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Diospyros.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Diospyros virginiana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=DIVI5)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=29)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Diospyros virginiana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416451)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Diospyros virginiana, common persimmon](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/diospyros/virginiana/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: persimmon](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/persimmon/)
- [The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition: persimmon](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=persimmon)
- [Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Natural Resources: Common Persimmon](https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/common_persimmon.html)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native fruit and nut trees to grow and eat: what each bears, when it starts, and which need a partner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees/index.html.md)
- [Winter identification: telling native trees apart by bark, buds and twigs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-tree-identification/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md), [Sassafras](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sassafras/index.html.md), [Western Soapberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/western-soapberry/index.html.md) and [Winged Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/winged-elm/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Dangleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dangleberry/index.html.md), [Coastal Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/coastal-azalea/index.html.md) and [Virginia Creeper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-creeper/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Yellowwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/yellowwood/index.html.md), [Cabbage Palmetto](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cabbage-palmetto/index.html.md), [Sourwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sourwood/index.html.md) and [Carolina Hemlock](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/carolina-hemlock/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Persimmon, add ?species=american-persimmon with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Persimmon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon): whether American Persimmon can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Persimmon as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Persimmon is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Persimmon needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 5 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-persimmon:5
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Persimmon where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Persimmon goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-persimmon&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Persimmon flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-persimmon