Native persimmons trees are either male or female and are not self-pollinating. That is, female flowers usually can't fertilize themselves. To produce fruit, there must be a male tree nearby to make pollen, which is transmitted by insects and wind. (Imported persimmon varieties and hybrids are self-fruitful.)
Both sexes bear fragrant, pale yellow, four-parted, bell-shaped flowers when they bloom in late spring. The fertile flower, which grows on female trees and produces fruit, has male and female parts. It grows three-quarters of an inch long with eight stamens (pollen-producing rods). The pollen-producing sterile (male) flower gets only three-eighths of an inch long with sixteen long stamen