Shi Di

Diospyros kaki is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the Ebenaceae family reaching 8-15 m tall, native to East Asia and widely cultivated for its sweet edible persimmon fruit. The bark is dark grey and fissured into rectangular plates; leaves are simple, alternate, broadly ovate to elliptic, 8-18 cm long, glossy dark green turning vivid orange to scarlet in autumn. Trees are typically dioecious or polygamous, bearing creamy four-lobed bell-shaped flowers in spring. The fruit is a large smooth-skinned berry 4-10 cm wide ripening yellow-orange to deep red, topped by a persistent four-lobed leathery calyx that remains firmly attached as the fruit matures and is shed with it. Shi Di is specifically this dried calyx — a flat brown cross-shaped structure with a short central pedicel, collected from fallen or harvested fruit.