Diospyros whyteana green bladder fruits

The pendulous flowers of Diospyros whyteana are pale yellow or nearly white to creamy and fragrant. They grow in short axillary sprays during spring, drooping from slender, hairy stalks.

The fruit is loosely enclosed in an oval bladder-like container formed by the five calyx lobes. In this picture these “bladders” are still green; the fleshy fruit inside will at this stage also still be green or becoming red. As they ripen, the bladders become brown and persist on the branches long after the ripe black fruits have fallen from them.

D. whyteana fruits have been used as a coffee substitute (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002).