Japanese Persimmon

The Diospyros kaki, or Japanese Persimmon, is a spreading deciduous tree from China, cultivated for well over a thousand years across East Asia. Its broad glossy leaves turn through orange, red and gold in autumn and then fall, leaving heavy orange fruit hanging on bare grey branches for weeks, which is the image the tree is planted for.
It works as an orchard tree and equally as an ornamental in courtyards and small parks, where the autumn sequence of colour and then bare-branch fruit does the work of two seasons.
The Japanese Persimmon carries a landscape through autumn and into winter better than almost any other fruiting tree.