The peach carries Persia in its name but was domesticated in China
Its scientific name, Prunus persica, points to Persia, and that is where Europeans first got the tree. But peaches were domesticated much further east, in Neolithic China. China still dominates: in 2023 it grew 65 percent of the world's peaches and nectarines, with no other country managing even 5 percent.
Nectarines are not a separate species. They are simply smooth, glossy-skinned peaches, treated commercially as their own fruit. Both belong to the genus Prunus, alongside cherries, apricots, almonds and plums, within the rose family. Among temperate fruits, only apples and pears are produced in larger quantities, and in China the peach is a symbol of long life.
Ironically, the tree itself is short-lived, rarely passing twenty years. It usually stands about 3 metres tall, with a crown just as wide, though it can occasionally reach 10. It has no thorns and sends up no suckers, and its deep roots keep growing through winter. Unlike apple orchards, commercial peach orchards generally do not rely on dwarfing rootstocks to limit size; instead, breeders have selected columnar, dwarf, spreading and weeping forms, and growers prune hard to keep a single trunk and stop branches drooping. Young twigs are smooth and often red, turning grey with age.
Blossom arrives before the leaves, sometimes in February and sometimes as late as May depending on location, and in the southern hemisphere between August and October. Frost often cuts it short. Fruit cultivars typically bear pink or red cup-shaped flowers with 20 to 30 stamens, while ornamental trees, grown purely for their show, may have doubled or two-toned blooms. The flowers can pollinate themselves and cross with other trees only about 5 percent of the time.
A tree can start bearing two or three years after sprouting. Its fruit is a drupe, or stone fruit, named for its hard seed casing. Colours run from greenish white to orange yellow, usually blushed red on the sunny side, and shapes range from egg-like to the flattened doughnut peach. Most fruits measure 5 to 7 centimetres across, though some reach 12.
Source: Peach
