Diospyros dichrophylla fruit

The fruit of Diospyros dichrophylla is almost spherical, flattened at the top and bottom. The ripe fruit is yellowish to pale orange and densely velvety. Its large and distinctive five-lobed calyx persists, usually flaring back strongly and curving more at the tips. These lobes may be up to 2,5 cm long. The ripe fruit may split into five valves but often not.

From three to eight oblong, flattened seeds are produced per fruit, dark brown and shiny, 1 cm long. The fruit is said to be poisonous as poison peach, one of the shrub’s (several) common names indicates. If this is true, it may hold some danger as the geographical distribution of the plant overlaps with Diospyros species bearing edible fruit, including D. lycioides.

The cream to white flowers came earlier, from late spring to early autumn. They have strongly reflexed petals, similar to some other Diospyros flowers, e.g. D. glabra. The flowers grow solitary from leaf axils, becoming 5 mm to 8 mm long. They hang from slender peduncles up to 2,5 cm long (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; iSpot).