Species
+

Diospyros kaki L.f.

Japanese Persimmon (EN), Japanese persimmon, Japanese persimmon, Kaki,Japanese Persimmon, Oriental Persimmon, Sharon Fruit

Climate known 51 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Diospyros kaki, the Oriental persimmon, Chinese persimmon, Japanese persimmon, kaki persimmon, or Fuyu persimmon, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Diospyros. Although its first botanical description was not published until 1780, D. kaki cultivation in China dates back more than 2000 years.

Text from Wikipedia, “Diospyros kaki”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Diospyros

Diospyros is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, which are typically dioecious. The majority are native to the tropics and many are of local ecological importance.

Text from Wikipedia, “Diospyros”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ebenaceae
Described by
L.f.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +4
Wild records
537 in range· 190 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1409mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 233 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1409 mm a year, wettest June at 233 mm, driest December at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Diospyros amara Perr.; Diospyros argyi H.Lév.; Diospyros bertii André; Diospyros chinensis Blume; Diospyros costata Carrière and 21 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1047 mm of 1409 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.0 °C against a yearly mean of 17.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1409 mm a year, wettest June at 233 mm, driest December at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1409 mm a year at the habitat, 1047 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 233 mm, driest December at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 731 mm to 2116 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -9.5 °C, about 14 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.4 °C to 9.1 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1409 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 472 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–33RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 472 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 5–1812 / 8–1916 / 12–2222 / 18–2626 / 22–2828 / 24–3031 / 24–3330 / 24–3227 / 22–3022 / 18–2717 / 12–2312 / 7–19
Night °C2 / -4–94 / -2–118 / 2–1413 / 8–1817 / 13–2121 / 17–2424 / 17–2623 / 17–2520 / 15–2315 / 9–199 / 3–154 / -3–10
Rain mm45 / 7–9062 / 11–12594 / 21–203138 / 31–245192 / 65–310233 / 93–373200 / 137–309171 / 124–278113 / 76–19577 / 39–12452 / 18–8832 / 6–54
DLI17 / 13–2419 / 14–3022 / 17–3527 / 22–3830 / 26–3730 / 27–3633 / 29–3731 / 29–3427 / 24–2923 / 17–2719 / 15–2417 / 13–22
RH %60 / 54–6562 / 52–6662 / 51–6662 / 52–6762 / 55–6764 / 57–6964 / 60–6964 / 61–6863 / 59–6760 / 57–6660 / 56–6459 / 54–63

Each figure is the median across the 472 grid cells holding the 528 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1288:5604 (25.575, 100.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 472 distinct grid cells holding the 528 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1288:5604 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.50_100.000, lapse-corrected -62 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2081 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Vietnam· introduced: Bulgaria, Transcaucasus, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Philippines, Queensland, Arkansas
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.95, 115.65 · in the densest population, 288 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 537 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 190 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 148 km away. 622 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 537 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Diospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kakiDiospyros kaki

Photographs: (c) 張家瑜, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Kim, Hyun-tae, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Diospyros kaki, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Polygalacturonases: Many Genes in Search of a Function1
Kristen A. Hadfield, A. B. Bennett (1998) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Screening for Antioxidant Activity in Edible Plant Products: Comparison of Low-Density Lipoprotein Oxidation Assay, DPPH Radical Scavenging Assay, and Folin−Ciocalteu Assay
Takuya Katsube, Hiromasa Tabata, Yukari Ohta, Yukikazu Yamasaki (2004) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Evaluation to the antioxidant activity of total flavonoids extract from persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) leaves
Lijun Sun, Jianbao Zhang, Xiaoyun Lu, Liyu Zhang (2011) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
CRC Handbook of Flowering
Abraham H. Halevy (2019)
Anti-Diabetic Potential of Phenolic Compounds: A Review
Md. Ali Asgar (2012) · International Journal of Food Properties
DkMyb4 Is a Myb Transcription Factor Involved in Proanthocyanidin Biosynthesis in Persimmon Fruit
Takashi Akagi, Ayako Ikegami, Tomoyuki Tsujimoto, Shozo Kobayashi (2009) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
The Mysteries of Proanthocyanidin Transport and Polymerization
Jian Zhao, Yongzhen Pang, Richard A. Dixon (2010) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Evaluation of some thin-layer drying models of persimmon slices (Diospyros kaki L.)
İ̇brahim Doymaz (2011) · Energy Conversion and Management
Total Polyphenols, Total Flavonoid Contents, and Antioxidant Activity of Korean Natural and Medicinal Plants
Eun‐Jin Kim, Joo‐Yeon Choi, Mi-Ri Yu, Mi-Young Kim (2012) · Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
Comparative study of primary and secondary metabolites in 11 cultivars of persimmon fruit (Diospyros kaki L.)
Robert Veberič, Jana Jurhar, Maja Mikulič-Petkovšek, Franci Štampar (2009) · Food Chemistry
The chemical structure of kaki-tannin from immature fruit of the persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.).
Tomoaki Matsuo, Saburo ITO (1978) · Agricultural and Biological Chemistry
High Molecular Weight Persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) Proanthocyanidin: A Highly Galloylated, A-Linked Tannin with an Unusual Flavonol Terminal Unit, Myricetin
Chunmei Li, Rachael Leverence, John D. Trombley, Shu-fen Xu (2010) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Diospyros 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 115 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.