Diospyros - Taxonomy and Etymology

Taxonomy and Etymology

The generic name Diospyros comes from the ancient Greek words "Dios" (διός) and "pyros" (πυρος). In context this means more or less "divine fruit" or "divine food", though its literal meaning is more like "Wheat of Zeus". The interpretation of Diospyros is however sufficiently confusing to have given rise to some curious and inappropriate interpretations such as "God's pear" and Jove's fire". The name Diospyros was originally applied to the Caucasian Persimmon (D. lotus).

The genus is a large one and the number of species has been estimated variously, depending on the date of the source. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew list has over 1000 entries, including synonyms and items of low confidence. Over 700 species are marked as being assigned with high confidence.