Persimmon

Orange persimmons hanging on bare branches in November, deer coming to the tree at dusk, cedar waxwings working the canopy. no fruit tree delivers more wildlife drama in fall.

Native persimmon is the fruit tree that belongs in every wildlife-oriented landscape in the East. Orange-yellow fruits ripen after the first hard frost, hanging on bare branches into December. Deer, foxes, opossums, raccoons, and every fruit-eating bird on the continent finds this tree in fall. Pluck a ripe persimmon and taste it: sweet, custardy, with hints of honey and brown sugar. Nothing bitter about a fully ripened fruit. The bark develops a distinctive blocky, alligator-hide texture with age, beautiful in winter. Tiny white flowers are visited by native bees in spring. Plant male and female trees for reliable fruit production. Persimmon is a slow-growing, long-lived tree that rewards the patience it asks for with decades of fall abundance.