There really ought to be a word for these surprise connections that the study of plant families provides us. The Ebenaceae or ebony family provides us with another: ebony and persimmons.
Ebony and persimmons both belong to the genus Diospyros, wherein most members of this mostly tropical family are found. I doubt I ever would have connected them, left to my own devices. Ebony is, of course, the famously dark wood that hails from Asia and Africa and has been used for carving by many cultures, notably the Ancient Egyptians. Ebony wood is so dense that it will sink in water.
There is a wide geographic spread between the various species of ebony: west Africa (Diospyros crassiflora), south India (Diospyros ebenum), the island of Mauritius (Diospyros tesselaria) and Indonesia (Diospyros celebica) -- to name a few.
I had heard of persimmons for many years, but not actually encountered one until living in California, where they are fairly common. What struck me above all about them was this: they have the most distinctive calyx of any plant or tree I have ever seen. The calyx in this case is a hard green "leafy" round base that connects the fruit or flower with the rest of the tree. They are strikingly beautiful and beautifully designed.
I have tried the fruit of the persimmon, which, like a tomato goes from light green to deep red. I found the flavor to be a bit weird, if you want my offhand honest opinion. To be fair, I think I may have had the heart-shaped, astringent, Hachiya variety as opposed to the squat, non-astringent, Fuyu variety.
Like ebony wood trees, persimmons are widely distributed around the world in many species.
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