Diospyros rhombifolia Hemsl.

Unripe fruit of Diospyros rhombifolia yield persimmon lacquer used for waterproofing fishing nets, oilcloths, etc.

Plants are often with short stout leafless spines which distinguish sterile and fruiting material from Diospyros cathayensis and D. armata.

Trees to 8 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets pubescent, usually with inconspicuous slender spiny tips, sometimes also with short thick lateral spines. Petiole 2--4 mm, slender, puberulous; leaf blade, 4--8.5 X 1.8--3.8 cm, papery, abaxially paler and scattered appressed pubescent, adaxially dark green, yellowish brown pubescent on veins, glabrescent, and minutely pustulate, base cuneate, margin ciliate, apex acute to acuminate, lateral veins 5--7 per side, reticulate veinlets slender, lax, raised on both surfaces, and sometimes pale or inconspicuous. Male flowers: pedicel ca. 7 mm; calyx lobes 4, triangular; corolla urn-shaped, ca. 4 mm, both surfaces slightly pubescent; stamens 16. Female flowers: pedicel ca. 1.8 cm, pubescent; calyx lobes 4, divided nearly to base, lanceolate, ca. 1 cm; corolla urn-shaped, with 4 white villose ridges; corolla lobes 4, reflexed; ovary densely villose. Fruit solitary, fruiting pedicel 1.5--2.5 cm, slender. Fruiting calyx lobes 4, spreading to slightly reflexed, oblong-lanceolate, 1.6--2 X ca. 0.5 cm, veins several, subparallel, and slightly raised. Berries orange, globose, ca. 2 cm in diam., glabrous, shiny. Seeds 2--4, brown, ca. 1 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Oct.

Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

* Thickets on slopes, forests beside streams; 300--800 m.

Diospyros rhombifolia, the diamond-leaf persimmon or princess persimmon, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ebenaceae, native to southeast China. A shrub or tree reaching 8 m (26 ft), and hardy to USDA zone 7b, it is widely cultivated as an ornamental for its small leaves and attractive orange fruit.