American-Asian Persimmon Hybrids (Diospyros hybrid)

Some of the most interesting fruits in the persimmon family are the American-Asian hybrids, which go botanically by the designation Diospyros hybrid.  Work was begun at least as early as the 1950’s in the then Soviet Union, out of the specimen collections of Michurin, at the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta in Crimea.  Michurin was a founder of modern agricultural plant selection, and he would often cross geographically distant cultivars to create agriculturally improved cultivars, targeting traits like frost tolerance, yield, and disease resistance.  The goal in crossing American persimmons, with their pronounced flavor, aroma, and cold-hardiness, with Asian persimmons, with their fruit size and thicker skin, was to find a more cold-hardy, yet pleasant tasting, persimmon. 

One of the first Asian-American hybrid persimmon cultivars, “Rosseyanka”, was introduced in 1964.  The name of the gardens and some of the scientists lives on in the names of some of the hybrid’s such as “Nikitski Bordovaya” (Nikita’s Gift), and “Dr. Kazas Hybrid”.  This work has continued in the US in the work of American horticulturists.  The AFFN orchard is proud to be home to several of these varieties.  We are always on the lookout for more.  Hybrids are an effort to combine and express the best of two worlds!  Also, if anyone has records or information related to the crossbreeding efforts in Yalta and subsequent efforts, please reach out to share this with us.  Much of this knowledge is imperiled by the tragic conflict in Ukraine and Crimea, and we can do our part to preserve the knowledge from these breeding efforts and these cultivars.

Growers possessing cultivars that are not shown here are encouraged to reach out to AFFN with germplasm/scions. Please also reach out to us, if you have corrections to offer on cultivar names, or redundancies of which you are aware among the cultivars.  Clarifying confusion in names, which has arisen through the years, is also a goal of AFFN.

American-Asian Persimmon Trees at the AFFN Orchard – last updated January 2026:

• Diospyros hybrid – Cardinal [DH]
• Diospyros hybrid – Costata x Rosseyanka
• Diospyros hybrid – DEC “Improved Rosseyanka”
• Diospyros hybrid – DEC “Rosseyanka x Thor”
• Diospyros hybrid – DEC (C5) “Haiku” (Nikita’s Gift x Thor)
• Diospyros hybrid – DEC (F4) (Nikita’s Gift x Thor)
• Diospyros hybrid – DEC (F6) “Compton” (Nikita’s Gift x Thor)
• Diospyros hybrid – England (R1-T14) “Manzano”
• Diospyros hybrid – England (R8-T32) “Kobayashi”
• Diospyros hybrid – Gum Drop
• Diospyros hybrid – Gwang Yang x Rosseyanka
• Diospyros hybrid – Hokkaido x Prok
• Diospyros hybrid – Honan Red x Rosseyanka
• Diospyros hybrid – Journey
• Diospyros hybrid – Kasandra
• Diospyros hybrid – Kurogaki x Rosseyanka Male
• Diospyros hybrid – Lavergne “Best Hybrid”
• Diospyros hybrid – Lavergne “David’s Kandy”
• Diospyros hybrid – Lehman (375-21)
• Diospyros hybrid – Lehman (425-29)
• Diospyros hybrid – Lehman (450-7) “Excel”
• Diospyros hybrid – Lehman (450-8)
• Diospyros hybrid – Mikkusu (JT-02)
• Diospyros hybrid – Morris Burton x Hokkaido
• Diospyros hybrid – MP-3
• Diospyros hybrid – Pierce “Acorn”
• Diospyros hybrid – Pierce “Twin”
• Diospyros hybrid – Pine
• Diospyros hybrid – Prok x Hokkaido
• Diospyros hybrid – Rosseyanka x Nikita’s Gift
• Diospyros hybrid – Russian Beauty
• Diospyros hybrid – Saijo x Rosseyanka “Korwood”
• Diospyros hybrid – Succulent
• Diospyros hybrid – Sugar Drop
• Diospyros hybrid – Super Rosseyanka
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “A. Lischuk”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Bliznetsnaya”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Chuchupaka”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Dar Sofiivki”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Dr. Kazas”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Gora Goverla”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Gora Rogers”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Gora Roman Kosh”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Goverla #1”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Kujinaya”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Novosti”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Okja”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Orest Uzhgorod”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Pamyati Chernayaeva”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Pamyati Teheryicie”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Pervitska”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Rosseyanka”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Sosnovskaya”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Sovietski Kaki”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Ukrainica”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Uzbekistani”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Viktor Derevyanko”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Zapyluvach”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR “Zinoche”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (12-21)
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (14-10)
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (15-30) “Bozhy Dar”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (15-5)
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (15-9) “Delicious”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (18-21) “Vasyl”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (NB-01) “Nikita’s Gift”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (NB-02) “Zima Khurma”
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (NB-04) “Nikita #4”
• Diospyros hybrid – Whopper

Following American-AsianPersimmon plants could not yet be aquired:

• Diospyros hybrid – Keener “Burbank” [DH]
• Diospyros hybrid – Pierce “Mei Zye”
• Diospyros hybrid – Russian Red
• Diospyros hybrid – UKR (NB-21) “Sestronka”