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Cultivated “Jiro” (non-astringent) above ruler and “Kuro” (astringent) persimmons that have sliced longitudinally to show 8 embryonic compartments (each of which could potentially have a single seed). Both fruits are seedless due to the absence of pollination by a “male” tree this year. The “Kuro” shows the dark flecks in the flesh that are typical of some cultivars. If pollinated, these flecks can become so abundant in certain cultivars as to tint the flesh quite brown (for example the cultivar “Chocolate” aka Nishamura Wase always behaves this way).

Cultivated Hana Fuyu cultivar of Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) showing both “male” (staminate) flower buds (clusters of 3) and “female” (pistalate”) flower buds (single larger buds). Note that the “male” buds occur on shoots that emerged just beyond last year’s fruit, and “female” buds occur only on shoots arising from terminal buds. I try to prune off all the “male” shoots to reduce/eliminate seeds in the fruit that result from the “female” buds.

My six Diospyros kaki cultivars that bore fruit this year after last December’s very hard freeze (15 F) that killed most of the persimmon flower buds.

Top row, left to right: Kuro, Saijo, Chienting, Akoumanzaki
Bottom row, left to right: “Fuyu” (Jiro), Ichikikei Jiro