Napapen, This is the way you get a new hybrids. They have been doing crosses like this in China for thousand of years.

Penny, you can't tell by the fruit whether it is a cross or not, the fruit is all from the mother's DNA. Still, most persimmon seeds are from cross-pollination since most persimmon varieties produce no male flowers.

Scott

Is it possible that really infrequent seeds in persimmons about through parthenogenesis -- if I even understand the word correctly -- i.e. without any pollen/pollination at all?

"really infrequent seeds in persimmons"... I have eaten many persimmons with full of seeds... In fact, the sweetest and most flavorful persimmon I have had is the seeded ones.

Sure, I would expect fully seeded fruits to come about from normal pollination, but it doesn't sound like napapen has a male tree, so it seems plausible that there isn't any pollinator within pollination distance at all. I suppose the other option is that there's a pollinator barely within pollination distance so that a few fruits are getting partially pollinated?

This is an aside from this topic, but of similar interest. In San Antonio TX I had a neighbor who planted giant sunflower next to his okra plants. He saved the seeds from his okra for the next year. These okra seeds grew okra plants about 15-20 feet tall. I believe that it was due to polination from the giant sunflower.