Persimmon

The American persimmon, also called the common or eastern persimmon, is a tree that ranges from southern Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and Iowa. Wikipedia says it is usually dioecious, so a tree needs both male and female plants to fruit, and that Native Americans cultivated it for its fruit and wood from prehistoric times. Cunningham calls it feminine, with Venus and water, and gives the powers of changing sex, healing and luck. He reports an Alabama belief that a girl who ate nine unripe persimmons would become a boy within two weeks. For chills he has a knot tied in a string for each chill, with the string tied to a persimmon tree, and for luck he has green persimmons buried. Kynes gives persimmon no entry, so the entry rests on Cunningham and Wikipedia alone.