Cornus kousa fruit. Edible but insipid. Not tropical and not rare, I'm afraid.

This post was edited by florauk on Tue, Aug 27, 13 at 16:27

That dogwood is very common and messy here as a street planting. Large white blooms nearly cover the tree in May.

Squirrels enjoy the fruits.

They're seeded here - have to be sure not to accidentally bite down on one of the small stony seeds - you could break a tooth.
Flavor more reminiscent of pawpaw than persimmon, to me.
Famine food - I eat 'em, but don't go out of my way to get a lot of 'em. Massage 'em, tear out the stem, suck out the pulp, spit out the seeds.

In a discussion here, some years back, one poster indicated that when he ate them, they made his heart race. I never got that effect, but proceed cautiously...

This post was edited by lucky_p on Wed, Aug 28, 13 at 12:09