← persimmon
freely propagated
Fuyu
Diospyros kaki
The record
- Parentage
- Diospyros kaki
- Origin
- Japan · introduced to the United States by the USDA in 1870
- Rights
- freely propagated — A Japanese clone in cultivation long before modern plant variety rights, introduced to the United States by the USDA in 1870. No IP claim found in the sources consulted.
- Astringency
- Non-astringent — pollination-constant non-astringent (PCNA); edible firm
- Form
- Mop-headed, mounded, seldom over 20 feet
- Hardiness
- Kaki generally does not tolerate temperatures below about 10 °F
Description
The persimmon most people have actually eaten. Non-astringent, so it can be eaten firm and crisp like an apple, or left to go soft — either works, which is why it is the supermarket type and the one to plant if the fruit has to persuade somebody.
The hardiness line is where it stops. Kaki does not tolerate much below 10 °F, which puts a hard northern boundary on this whole species and is precisely the problem the American hybrids were made to solve.
Where to find it
No source recorded. That does not mean the cultivar is unavailable, only that this record does not yet name a nursery carrying it. Point us at one and it goes in.