Great Wall Persimmon

Great Wall gets its real, documented name from American plant geographer J. Russell Smith, who spotted a tree growing near the actual Great Wall of China during a trip in the 1920s and brought material back to the United States. The fruit is small, flat, and distinctively four-sided with fine black stripes extending from the calyx, and the flesh is dry, similar in texture to Tanenashi, also documented in this database, but of genuinely excellent quality. The tree is a strong, upright grower, a biennial bearer, and does particularly well in Florida growing conditions; it was specifically bred to withstand harsh Chinese winters, giving it real, above-average cold tolerance for an Asian persimmon variety. It is also genuinely prized as an ornamental, with a tall, pointed growth habit and brilliant cherry-pink fall foliage.