A genus, Diospyros, of the ebony family, containing more than 250 species. Some species are important for their succulent fruits, such as date plum, kaki plum, and persimmon, and several for their timber, particularly the heartwood, which is the true ebony of commerce.

Although it is popularly supposed to be a black wood, most species have a heartwood that is only streaked and mottled with black. The heartwood is very brittle, and is difficult to work, but it has long been in demand. The sapwood is white, becoming bluish or reddish when cut.

Black ebony is used for knife handles, piano keys, finger boards of violins, hairbrush backs, inlays, and marquetry. Some of the woods called ebony, however, belong to different families, especially the pulse family, Leguminosae.

Persimmon (D. virginiana), of the southeastern United States, is one of numerous tropical or subtropical species. The species in tropical America are too small or rare to be of economic value, although several of them have black heartwood used locally for making walking sticks, inlays, and miscellaneous articles of turnery and carving.