Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) also called Date or sugar plum grows native in the Eastern and Midwest region of Northern America. As the tree produces fragrant flowers, very hard, valuable and durable wood and most delightful tasting edible fruits called Persimmons, it is cultivated wherever the growth and climate conditions are suitable. The trees grow ca. 20 meters high and the stems stay fairly thin in diameter, ca. 20 to 30 cms is a common diameter for logs. The logs consist of nearly white to creamy white sapwood, that is firm and quite valuable, whereas the thin heart wood developing not until ca. 100 years may be brown to even nearly black colour. The wood is very hard, dense and durable, it is used for lots of applications like drum sticks, mallets, billiard cues, bows, flutes, spoons, knifes and of course for high quality golf clubs, known as 'woods' throughout golf sport. These clubs made from persimmon were the choice material for drivers, they became restituted by metal in the last quarter of the 20th century.
