Central South Carolina. They produce some sort of ‘fruit’ that somewhat resembles a crape myrtle fruit, although the tree doesn’t. The silvery disc in the pic is an American ten-cent coin for comparison.
It looks to me like a hackberry or sugarberry, genus Celtis. I would be more confident in the id if I could see the bark or this year’s fruit. The fruit of a hackberry consists mainly of a single hard seed, like a small cherry pit. At this time of year, the fruit would be green. The bark of a hackberry is covered in cork-like warts.
How tall is the tree?
Eh, probably 20 feet. Not more than about 10-12 years old.
American persimmon? Diospyros virginiana. Also called simmon and possumwood. Doesn’t grow here in the west but the leaves of your plant look exactly like those of the cultivated Japanese persimmons (Diospyros kaki) that do.
Not Haki… they are bred for larger fruit. The fruit size match to Virginiana . Natively found in the triangle from Texas to Connecticut to Florida… native to S. Carolina…
More pictures would be required to be sure .
But I guess Diospyros refers to the way it grows everywhere
Slight hijack: I lived for a couple years (on and off) in the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. A common tree thre is chicozapote – the sap produces the original chewing gum, and the fruit (zapote) is a sweet, dark brown ball with the consistency of a soft pear.
There’s another, less common tree there whose fruit they call zapote negro – “black zapote.” It’s quite different – the fruit is dark black, the consistency of a persimmon, and tastes like…well, like a persimmon! I thought to myself, “any chance this is a close relative of the orange persimmon seen in California and the Southeast US”? It turns out that, indeed, zapote negro is another species of the genus Diospyros.
However, back to the OP, pending further info, I think that’s more likely a hackberry (Celtis). The OP’s leaves have partly toothed margins. Most hackberrys are more toothed than that, but some are just like that – and, I’m pretty sure all *Diopsyros *leaves are entire (no teeth).
I’m guessing hackberry too, but hackberry’s have a distinctive bark. Does the trunk look like it’s got nipples?
Bark is somewhat rugose toward the bottom, not so much higher up.
Also the small branches from the main branches are somwhat spiky.
Now that we’ve seen the bark, it’s almost certainly a Celtis. Though I am no expert at distinguishing C. occidentalis from C. laevigata, I would put my vote in for sugarberry - Cercis laevigata.
Thanks, all.