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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Diospyros kaki 'Hachiya' - Hachiya Persimmon Tree

The Hachiya persimmon tree is a beautiful small deciduous tree with wonderful orange fall color and tasty fruit. I do like the trees without foliage better than with but it is one of the nicest small trees for fall color. Growing to 25' with an equal spread forming a rounded, oval or umbrella habit, they are easily keep smaller if you want to harvest the fruit. This one has a sign saying "please don't pick the fruit".



Foliage is alternate, simple, elliptical to ovate shaped, entire margins, dark glossy green in summer and yellow to orange in the fall.





Persimmon trees are dioecious, male and female plants. Flowers in the spring, small green and hardly noticeable. My guess is that these cultivars are all females.



Fruit is a large orange berry, oval shaped, over 3". Large persistent calix. Picked firm and allowed to ripen.





Stems are lightly downy when young, eventually becoming glabrous.



Bark is wonderful, deeply sectioned into rectangular blocks.


Misidentification: Fuyu Persimmon, which looks just like this except the fruit are flatter, without the point on the bottom.

Location:
Aptos
520 Townsend Ave (on the side street Granada)

Santa Cruz:
412 Windham