Species
+

Diospyros lotus L.

Caucasian Persimmon, Date Plum, Date plum, Date-plum

Climate known 76 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

The date-plum, also known by the common names Caucasian persimmon and lilac persimmon, is a widely cultivated species of the genus Diospyros, native to Eurasia. The ripe fruit is edible.

Text from Wikipedia, “Date-plum”, 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.
Native to
Tadzhikistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus +12
Wild records
722 in range· 252 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1211mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jul 248 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–37DLI
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, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1211 mm a year, wettest July at 248 mm, driest December at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.2 °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 Dactylus trapezuntinus Forssk.; Diospyros calycina Dippel; Diospyros lotus f. ellipsoidea Makino; Diospyros lotus f. globosa Makino; Diospyros lotus f. longifolia Z.Y.Zhang and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May 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 (886 mm of 1211 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 13.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November 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 1211 mm a year, wettest July at 248 mm, driest December at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1211 mm a year at the habitat, 886 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 248 mm, driest December at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 692 mm to 1855 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: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 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 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 -8.2 °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 -8.2 °C, the absolute minimum -15.4 °C, about 94 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.7 °C to 3.3 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.2 °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: 55 to 65% 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 4 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1211 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 574 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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°frost30.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–37RH 55–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 574 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 °C4 / 0–126 / 3–1311 / 8–1717 / 13–2222 / 18–2625 / 21–2927 / 23–3128 / 24–3024 / 21–2619 / 16–2212 / 9–176 / 3–13
Night °C-5 / -10–3-3 / -7–51 / -2–87 / 4–1312 / 10–1717 / 14–2121 / 17–2321 / 16–2416 / 13–2010 / 7–153 / -1–9-2 / -7–5
Rain mm28 / 7–9235 / 10–10755 / 19–14978 / 29–159102 / 59–193161 / 80–258248 / 131–376223 / 117–336152 / 71–20657 / 38–12248 / 17–9124 / 6–66
DLI17 / 13–2223 / 16–2829 / 20–3335 / 25–3837 / 29–3935 / 29–3931 / 28–3630 / 28–3427 / 24–2924 / 18–2517 / 14–2115 / 12–20
RH %56 / 51–6355 / 51–6356 / 50–6356 / 51–6358 / 53–6361 / 56–6765 / 61–7165 / 61–6862 / 58–6658 / 55–6457 / 53–6357 / 52–62

Each figure is the median across the 574 grid cells holding the 712 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 1163:5772 (31.825, 108.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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 574 distinct grid cells holding the 712 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1163:5772 (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 32.00_108.750, lapse-corrected -144 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1320 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.
NativeTadzhikistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, China South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Switzerland, Baleares, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, Japan, Myanmar
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.477, 127.257 · in the densest population, 287 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 722 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 252 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 39 km away. 422 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 of the 722 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Diospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotusDiospyros lotus

Photographs: (c) olrett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Ljaž, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Дмитрий Дунин, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 lotus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Y-chromosome–encoded small RNA acts as a sex determinant in persimmons
Takashi Akagi, Isabelle Henry, Ryutaro Tao, Luca Comai (2014) · Science
In vitro Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Diospyros lotus and Pyrus boissieriana growing in Iran
Seyed Mohammad Nabavi, Mohammad Ali Ebrahimzadeh, Seyed Fazel Nabavi, Mojtaba Fazelian (2009) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activity of Diospyros lotus L. Extract and Isolated Compounds
Monica Rosa Loizzo, Ataa Said, Rosa Tundis, Usama W. Hawas (2009) · Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
Anti-nociceptive, anti-inflammatory and sedative activities of the extracts and chemical constituents of Diospyros lotus L.
Ghias Uddin, Abdur Rauf, Bina S. Siddiqui, Naveed Muhammad (2014) · Phytomedicine
Antioxidant activities and phenolic compounds of date plum persimmon (Diospyros lotus L.) fruits
Hui Gao, Ni Cheng, Juan Zhou, Bini Wang (2011) · Journal of Food Science and Technology
Green synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic applications of silver nanoparticles using Diospyros lotus
Samaira Yasmin, Shazia Nouren, Haq Nawaz Bhatti, Dure Najaf Iqbal (2020) · Green Processing and Synthesis
A high-quality chromosomal genome assembly of Diospyros oleifera Cheng
Yujing Suo, Peng Sun, Huihui Cheng, Weijuan Han (2020) · GigaScience
Evaluating the usefulness of continuous leaf turgor pressure measurements for the assessment of Persimmon tree water status
M.A. Martínez-Gimeno, M. Castiella, S. Rüger, Diego S. Intrigliolo (2016) · Irrigation Science
Preliminary Comparative Phytochemical Screening of Diospyros lotus Stewart
Ghias Uddin, Abdur Rauf, Bina S. Siddiqui, Syed Qaiser Shah (2011)

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 145 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.