| | Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. EBENACEAE. Trade and local names: American persimmon (US); plaqueminier d'Amerique (FR); caqui de Virginia, c. silvestre (ES); Persimone (DE). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: North America.
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct. Heartwood basically white or grey (only the light-coloured wood is traded; formation of black heartwood is rare). Sapwood colour distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.75–0.95 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood semi ring porous or diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more. Average tangential vessel diameter 100–160 µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 5–12. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 3–4 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits. Helical thickenings absent.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres of medium wall thickness, or very thick-walled. Fibre pits common in both radial and tangential walls, distinctly bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma banded. Bands marginal (or seemingly marginal) or not marginal (or seemingly marginal). Axial parenchyma bands forming a reticulate pattern with rays. Bands fine. Bands predominantly uniseriate, some possibly indicating growth boundaries. Axial parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse, or diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty, or vasicentric. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 4–8.
Rays. Rays 9–12 per tangential mm, multiseriate, 1–3 cells wide. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent.
Storied structures. Storied structure present, all rays storied, axial parenchyma storied, vessel elements storied, fibres storied. Number of ray tiers per axial millimetre 2–3.
Secretory structures. Intercellular canals absent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals present, prismatic, located in axial parenchyma cells. Crystal-containing axial parenchyma cells chambered. Number of crystals per cell or chamber one. Silica not observed.
Illustrations. • Transverse section. • Tangential section. rays storied in this species. • Radial section.
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 9th April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
