Video:How to Identify a Persimmon Tree

Transcript:How to Identify a Persimmon Tree

Hi, I'm Henning von Schmeling at the Chattahoochee Nature Center for About.com. Today, we're going to be talking about a persimmon tree and how to identify those.

Persimmon Tree Leaves

The bark is very characteristic. It looks like snake skin almost, it has all these raised bumps and it looks like a reptile skin. Another way to tell them apart is from the leaves. When you look at the leaves, I picked a branch off of one of these trees right above me, and when you look at them they're very glossy. Very shiny on the top, a little dull on the bottom. They're entire. If you look at a leaf very closely, some of them will have those jagged edges like teeth on them while this one is called entire. It's completely smooth coming out to a point like this.

Persimmon Fruit

These are still fairly small, young leaves. This is early in the spring here in Atlanta and they will still expand out to be about three times this size. Another interesting thing about trees, the persimmon tree, is they come in both male and female trees. So if you look at the flowers and you see a round ball in the middle of the flower that is the ovary. That would be a female tree when it blooms. And that produces the fruit that we like to eat.

Fruit is Best in Fall

So the persimmon, alternating leaves on the stem, glossy leaves. In the fall, a beautiful burgundy to purple color. They have orange-red fruit in the fall. They are the sweetest right around Halloween, around when the first frost hits. And you will probably have to compete with the raccoons and all the other animals.

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