异色柿 yi se shi

Cavanillea philippensis Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encycl. 3: 663. 1792; Diospyros discolor Willdenow; D. utilis Hemsley.

Trees to 20 m, evergreen. Bark dark brown. Branchlets green when young, sericeous, becoming gray and glabrous. Winter buds sericeous. Petiole 0.5--1.7 cm, robust, densely pubescent; leaf blade oblong to oblong-elliptic, (7.5--)20--30 X (3.5--)7--11 cm, leathery, abaxially sericeous to appressed pubescent when young but becoming glaucous, glabrous, and with small but sharply delimited sunken glands scattered between lateral veins and 3--12 mm from midrib, adaxially glabrous, drying abaxially grayish and adaxially brown, base rounded to shallowly cordate, apex acuminate, acute, or rarely obtuse, lateral veins 10--14 or more per side and inconspicuous, reticulate veinlets almost invisible. Male flowers in sericeous (1--)3--7-flowered cymes or racemes, fragrant; pedicels 1--7 mm, densely villous; calyx densely villous, lobes 4 and oblong; corolla white, urn-shaped, outside slightly hairy; corolla lobes 4, reflexed; stamens 24. Female flowers solitary, similar to male flowers, subsessile; staminodes apparently absent; style apparently 3-cleft. Fruit sessile. Fruiting calyx 1.4--2.8 cm in diam., outside densely sericeous; lobes 4, recurved, oblong, 1--1.5 cm, villous. Berries red to pink, globose, ca. 8 cm, 8--10-locular, densely rusty, yellowish, or gray villose. Seeds dark brown with thin pale skin, 3-sided, ca. 2.7 X 1.4 X 1.4 cm. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Nov.

Coastal forests, sometimes forming pure stands; 0--200 m. Taiwan (Guishan Dao, Hengchun peninsula, Lanyu) [Indonesia, Philippines]

Diospyros philippensis is cultivated throughout tropical Asia and tropical America. The fruit are edible after removing hairs and skin but do not taste good. The wood is hard, tough, fine textured, similar to ebony, and is used for furniture, crafts, and exterior work.