Peach

The peach (Prunus persica) is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called nectarines. Peaches and nectarines are the same species, though they are regarded commercially as different fruits.
The tree is regarded as handsome and is planted in gardens for its springtime blooms in addition to fruit production. The peach tree is relatively short lived, usually not exceeding twenty years of age. However, the peach fruit is regarded as a symbol of longevity in several East Asian cultures.
The specific name persica refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia (modern-day Iran), from where it was transplanted to Europe and in the 16th century to the Americas. It belongs to the genus Prunus, which includes the cherry, apricot, almond, and plum, and which is part of the rose family.
The peach is very popular; only the apple and pear have higher production amounts for temperate fruits. In 2023, China produced 65% of the world total of peaches and nectarines. Other leading countries, such as Spain, Turkey, Italy, the U.S., and Iran lag far behind China, with none producing more than 5% of the world total.
The peach is a deciduous tree or tree like shrub that may very rarely grow to as much as 10 meters (33 ft) tall, but is more typically 3 m (10 ft) with large specimens reaching 4 m (13 ft). The spread of the crown is similar to the height, ranging from 3 to 4 meters. They never produce suckers or have thorns. Unlike with apples the size of peach trees is not generally controlled by dwarfing rootstocks in commercial orchards. A great variety of growth habits have been selected including columnar, dwarf, spreading, and weeping. In order to have a single trunk trees must pruned and likewise the branches have a tendance to droop over time and must be trained to allow for access under the tree. The bark on the trunk and branches is dark gray with horizontal lenticels. It becomes more scaly and rough as the tree becomes older. The root system is deep on peach trees and the roots of peach trees continue to grow during the winter season.
Twigs on peach trees have a smooth, hairless surface, the bark is usually red, but may be green on the sides not exposed to the sun. As they become older branchlets weather to gray in color. Twigs have true terminal buds at their ends.
Peach leaves are oblong to lanceolate, having sides nearly parallel until tapering at end and base or shaped like the head of a spear. The widest portion of the leaf is midway or further towards the leaf tip. Each leaf folds along the central rib of the leaf and is often also curved, usually 7–15 centimeters (3–6 in) long and 2–4.5 cm (1–2 in) wide, though occasionally they may be shorter. The surface of the leaves is smooth and hairless, but the leaf stem sometimes has glands. The edges of the leaves have serrated edges with blunt teeth. The teeth have a reddish-brown gland at the tip. Leaves are attached to the twigs by petioles, leaf stems. They are strong and measure 1 to 2 cm. They can also have one or more extrafloral nectaries.
Flowers on peach trees are either solitary or in groups of two and usually bloom before the leaves begin to grow. They may range in shades from white to red, but having pink or red flowers 2–3.5 cm in width is typical of cultivars selected for their fruit. Trees grown as ornamentals also may have double flowers, semi-doubled flowers, or bicolored forms. Each flower has four or five petals and is somewhat cup shaped with the petals curving to shelter the flower's center. Each flower will have 20 to 30 stamens and purple-red anthers at their ends. The single style is nearly as long as the stamens. The flowers are self-fertile and outcross at about 5%.
The bloom period is in the early spring, often cut short by frosts, in February, March, April, or May depending on location. Correspondingly in August or October in New Zealand in the southern hemisphere.
Trees can begin producing fruit in the two or three years after sprouting. Because of the hardness of the seed casing peaches are called stone fruits like the others in the Prunus genus, but are more formally called drupes. Fruits range in color from greenish white to orange yellow, usually with a blush of red on the side of the fruit most exposed to the sun. Their shape varies wildly from a flattened sphere resembling a doughnut, egg shaped, or a slightly compressed sphere usually with a seam on one side. A normal diameter for a fruit is between 5 and 7 centimeters (2 and 3 in), but sometimes they may be as small as 3 cm (1.2 in) or as large as 12 cm (4.7 in).
The flesh of the peach is quite variable in color from greenish-white to white to yellow to dark red. The texture can also differ, melting, nonmelting, or stony hard all possible.
The growth of the fruit is a double-sigmoid growth curve: a beginning quick period of development followed by a resting period of little growth and then a second period of rapid growth.
The seed of the peach is much larger and less round than the seeds of its closest living relatives. Unlike the pit of an almond, which is only pitted, the peach pit's stony exterior is both pitted and deeply furrowed.
The peach tree was given the name Amygdalus persica by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in his book Systema Naturae. The accepted species name of Prunus persica was published by August Batsch in 1801. Though this was far from settled until the 20th century with many different placements of the peach and even divisions of nectarines and flat peaches into different species. The botanist Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick argued persuasively in 1917 that these differences are merely simple mutations and not species or even varieties beginning consensus towards the modern classification. This was supported by breeding experiments as early as 1906 showing the hairlessness of nectarines is a recessive trait. Though sometimes alternative names continue to be used even in the 21st Century with Amygdalus persica being used as recently as 2003 in an authoritative scientific publication. More than 200 scientific names have been published that are considered synonyms of Prunus persica by Plants of the World Online (POWO). Though the majority of sources agree on its classification as Prunus persica, there is division on the correct author citation for the name. Most sources, such as POWO, World Flora Online, and the Flora of North America give August Batsch credit. However, a few sources such as World Plants maintained by the botanist Michael Hassler instead credit Jonathan Stokes with priority dated to 1812.
Prunus persica is classified in Prunus with other stone fruits within the rose family, Rosaceae. The further classification into a subgenus or section is disputed. The work of Alfred Rehder, published in 1940, has been widely used to group the species of Prunus. Rehder based his system largely on that of Bernhard Adalbert Emil Koehne with the peach placed with the almond in subgenus Amygdalus because similarities in the rough and pitted stone. However, since 2000 studies of nuclear and chloroplast DNA have shown that the five subgenera accepted by Rehder are not more closely related to each other than to other species in Prunus. In 2013 Shuo Shi and collaborators published research where they proposed it be part of subgenus Prunus together with the plums and cherries, but in a section named Persicae, now corrected to Persica. However, these groupings are not yet widely accepted.
The greatest genetic diversity in peaches is found in China and where it is generally agreed to have been domesticated. The species is often thought to be a cultigen, a taxa that has its origins in cultivation rather than as a wild species.
The closest relatives of the peach are the Chinese bush peach (Prunus kansuensis), Chinese wild peach (Prunus davidiana), the smooth stone peach (Prunus mira). Though Charles Darwin speculated that the peach might be a marvelous modification of the almond (Prunus amygdalus), research into the divergence of peach relatives shows this not to be the case. Quite the opposite the almond, while in the same genus, is confirmed to be a more distant relative.
In April 2010, an international consortium, the International Peach Genome Initiative, which includes researchers from the United States, Italy, Chile, Spain, and France, announced they had sequenced the peach tree genome (doubled haploid Lovell). In 2013 they published the peach genome sequence and related analyses. The sequence is composed of 227 million nucleotides arranged in eight pseudomolecules representing the eight peach chromosomes (2n = 16). In addition, 27,852 protein-coding genes and 28,689 protein-coding transcripts were predicted.
Particular emphasis in this study is reserved for the analysis of the genetic diversity in peach germplasm and how it was shaped by human activities such as domestication and breeding. Major historical bottlenecks were found, one related to the putative original domestication that is supposed to have taken place in China about 4,000–5,000 years ago, the second is related to the western germplasm and is due to the early dissemination of the peach in Europe from China and the more recent breeding activities in the United States and Europe. These bottlenecks highlighted the substantial reduction of genetic diversity associated with domestication and breeding activities.
Though not a separate grouping genetically, nectarines are regarded as different fruits commercially. The difference is the lack of fuzz, the trichomes, on the skin of the fruits. Research into the cause of this trait found the transcription factor gene PpeMYB25 regulates the formation of trichomes on peach fruits. A mutation can cause a loss of function resulting in the changed fruit type.
Fossil endocarps with characteristics indistinguishable from those of modern peaches have been recovered from late Pliocene deposits in Kunming, dating to 2.6 million years ago. In the absence of evidence that the plants were in other ways identical to the modern peach, the name Prunus kunmingensis has been assigned to these fossils. Genetic evidence supports a very early emergence of edibility in the wild ancestors of the peach.
The genus name Prunus is from Latin for plum. The specific name persica was given by Linnaeus because European botanists of the 1700s and 1800s continued to believe the Roman accounts of peaches originating in Persia to be correct.
The modern English word – and its cognates in many European languages such as the German Pfirsich and Finnish persikka – also have Latin origins. In ancient Rome the peach was called persicum malum or simply persicum meaning 'Persian apple'. This became the Late Latin pessica and in turn the medieval pesca. In Old French it was variously the peche, pesche, or peske. The first usage in England was as the surname Pecche in about 1184–1185. The French word was directly adopted into English to mean the fruit and spelled either pechis or peches around the year 1400. In 1605 the first known instance of the modern spelling of peach was published. Peach trees are also, less frequently, called common peaches.
The various cultivars of peach with smooth skinned fruits are called nectarines. This word was coined by English speakers, originally as an adjective meaning 'nectar-like', from nectar and the suffix -ine, with the first use in print in 1611.
The exact place of origin for the domestic peach is unknown. Based on archeology from the 2010s East China near the Yangtze Delta has emerged as a likely candidate and contradicting the theory of domestication in Northwestern China. Many sources since the 1980s have listed North China as its likely place of origin. They are now naturalized in many other parts of Asia. It grows throughout eastern China and into Inner Mongolia. To the east they are found on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan. To the south they are also found in Vietnam and Laos. In the Indian Subcontinent are reported in the Eastern Himalayas and nearby Assam province, but not Nepal, parts of central India, Pakistan, and the Western Himalayas. Westwards they are also an introduced species in Afghanistan, Iran, and all the countries of Central Asia. Transitioning to Europe they also grow in the North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, and Turkey.
In Europe the peach trees are partly naturalized. In western Europe they are found in Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In central Europe they are reported as escaped from cultivation in Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland and in Corsica, Sardinia, Italy, Cyprus, and Greece in the south. In the southeast they grow as introduced plants in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria. To the east they are found in parts of European Russia, Ukraine, and Crimea.
They also have escaped from cultivation in the African nations of Libya, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and the Cape Verde Islands off the northeast coast. Specific areas of South Africa include the biogeographic areas of the Northern Provinces, Orange Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal.
In North America, in addition to cultivation, peach saplings are often found growing anywhere pits have been discarded. Most of these feral trees are short lived, but some have established naturalized populations. Such escapes are reported in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia. Trees outside of cultivation have been found in all of the United States east of the Mississippi excluding Minnesota, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In the northwest they are found in Oregon and Idaho. In the Southwestern United States they are to some extent naturalized from California to Texas, with the exception of in Nevada. Similar occurrences are also found in the northwest of Mexico and El Salvador in Central America.
In South America escapees are only reported from Ecuador and the northeast of Argentina.
In Australia it is naturalized in the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia. In New Zealand it can be found as an escapee from cultivation on both the North Island and south Island, especially around Auckland, Christchurch, and in the Otago region. It is also naturalized on many oceanic islands including the Mariana Islands, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Réunion, and Saint Helena.
Which peaches might be wild type or feral escapes from cultivation is still an open scientific question. The authors of the Flora of China wrote in 2003 that completely wild peach trees no longer exist and this view is widely accepted. Although its botanical name Prunus persica refers to Persia peaches originated in China, where they have been cultivated since the Neolithic period. From the 1980s to the 2010s it was believed that cultivation started around 2000 BCE. In 2014 new research was published showing that domestication occurred as early as 6000 BCE in Zhejiang Province on the central east coast of China. The oldest archaeological peach stones are from the Kuahuqiao site near Hangzhou. Archaeologists point to the Yangtze River Valley as the place where the early selection for favorable peach varieties probably took place.
A domesticated peach appeared very early in Japan, in 4700–4400 BCE, during the Jōmon period. It was already similar to modern cultivated forms, where the peach stones are significantly larger and more compressed than earlier stones. This domesticated type of peach was brought into Japan from China. Nevertheless, in China itself, this variety is currently attested only at a later date around 3300 to 2300 BCE.
In India, the peach first appeared sometime between 2500 and 1700 BCE, during the Harappan period in the Kashmir.
It is also found elsewhere in West Asia in ancient times. Peach cultivation reached Greece by 300 BC. Alexander the Great is sometimes said to have introduced them into Greece after conquering Persia, but no historical evidence for this claim has been found. Peaches were, however, well known to the Romans in the first century AD; the oldest known artistic representations of the fruit are in two fragments of wall paintings, dated to the first century AD, in Herculaneum, preserved due to the Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, and now held in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Archaeological finds show that peaches were cultivated widely in Roman northwestern Continental Europe, but production collapsed around the sixth century; some revival of production followed with the Carolingian Renaissance of the ninth century.
An article on peach tree cultivation in Spain is brought down in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture. The peach was brought to the Americas by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, and eventually made it to England and France in the 17th century, where it was a prized and expensive treat. Although Thomas Jefferson had peach trees at Monticello, American farmers did not begin commercial production until the 19th century in Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, South Carolina, and finally Virginia.
The Shanghai honey nectar peach was a key component of both the food culture and agrarian economy the area where the modern megacity of Shanghai stands. Peaches were the cornerstone of early Shanghai's garden culture. As modernization and westernization swept through the city the Shanghai honey nectar peach nearly disappeared completely. Much of modern Shanghai is built over these gardens and peach orchards.
The first European botanist to argue that the peach did not originate in Persia was Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1855. He argued on the basis of it not being mentioned by Xenophon in 401 BCE or by other early sources that it could not have arrived there much before it was imported to Rome in the 100s BCE. An important western botanist to argue for a Chinese origin of the species was Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick in 1917. Chinese literature records the fruit for at least 1000 years before its appearance in Europe.
Peaches were introduced into the Americas in the 16th century by the Spanish. By 1580, peaches were being grown in Latin America and were cultivated by the remnants of the Inca Empire in Argentina.
In the United States the peach was soon adopted as a crop by American Indians. In the eastern U.S. the peach also became naturalized and abundant as a feral species. Peaches were being grown in Virginia as early as 1629. Peaches grown by Indians in Virginia were said to have been "of greater variety and finer sorts" than those of the English colonists. Also in 1629, peaches were listed as a crop in New Mexico. William Penn noted the existence of wild peaches in Pennsylvania in 1683. In fact, peaches may have already spread to the American Southeast by the early to mid 1600s, actively cultivated by indigenous communities such as the Muscogee before permanent Spanish settlement of the region.
Peach plantations became an objective of American military campaigns against the Indians. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition destroyed the livelihood of many of the Iroquois people of New York. Among the crops destroyed were plantations of peach trees. In 1864, Kit Carson led a successful U.S. army expedition to Canyon de Chelly in Arizona to destroy the livelihood of the Navajo. Carson destroyed thousands of peach trees. A soldier said they were the "best peach trees I have ever seen in the country, every one of them bearing fruit." The Navajo signed a treaty with the US government in 1868 and were able to return to the canyon. They had saved peach pits and some trees resprouted from stumps and so by the 1870s and 1880s many peach orchards had been restored.
Peaches are easiest to grow dry, continental or temperate climates, with conditions of high humidity greatly increasing diseases and pests in subtropics and tropics. In addition the trees have a chilling requirement. Most cultivars require 600 to 1,000 hours of chilling at temperatures between 4 to 10 °C (40 to 50 °F). During the chilling period, key chemical reactions occur, but the plant appears dormant. Temperatures under −1 °C (30 °F) are ineffective for fulfilling the chilling requirement. Once the chilling period is fulfilled, the plant enters a second type of dormancy, the quiescence period. During quiescence, buds break and grow when sufficient warm weather favorable to growth is accumulated. The chilling requirement is not satisfied in tropical or subtropical areas except at high altitudes with low-chill cultivars, some which require less than 100 hours of suitable temperatures.
The trees themselves can usually tolerate temperatures to around −26 to −30 °C (−15 to −22 °F), although the following season's flower buds are usually killed at these temperatures, preventing a crop that summer. Flower bud death begins to occur between −15 and −25 °C (5 and −13 °F), depending on the cultivar and on the timing of the cold, with the buds becoming less cold tolerant in late winter. Another climate constraint is spring frost. The trees flower fairly early and the blossom is damaged or killed if temperatures drop below about −1.1 °C (30.0 °F). If the flowers are not fully open, though, they can tolerate a few degrees colder. The flowers are also vulnerable to temperatrues higher than 22 to 25 °C (72 to 77 °F) during the day.
Climates with significant winter rainfall at temperatures below 16 °C (61 °F) are also unsuitable for peach cultivation, as the rain promotes peach leaf curl, which is the most serious fungal disease for peaches. In practice, fungicides are extensively used for peach cultivation in such climates, with more than 1% of European peaches exceeding legal pesticide limits in 2013.
Finally, summer heat is required to mature the crop, with mean temperatures of the hottest month between 20 and 30 °C (68 and 86 °F).
Peach trees are grown in well draining soils as they are vulnerable to disease in wet soils. They are most productive in topsoils approximately 45 to 60 centimetres (18 to 24 in) with a sandy loam character.
Most peach trees sold by nurseries are cultivars budded or grafted onto a suitable rootstock. Common rootstocks are 'Lovell Peach', 'Nemaguard Peach', Prunus besseyi, and 'Citation'. The rootstock provides hardiness and budding is done to improve predictability of the fruit quality.
Typical peach cultivars begin bearing fruit in their third year. Their lifespan in the U.S. varies by region; the University of California at Davis gives a lifespan of about 15 years while the University of Maine gives a lifespan of 7 years there.
Peach trees need full sun, and a layout that allows good natural air flow to assist the thermal environment for the tree. Peaches are planted in early winter. During the growth season, they need a regular and reliable supply of water, with higher amounts just before harvest.
Peaches need nitrogen-rich fertilizers more than other fruit trees. Without regular fertilizer supply, peach tree leaves start turning yellow or exhibit stunted growth. Blood meal, bone meal, and calcium ammonium nitrate are suitable fertilizers.
The flowers on a peach tree are typically thinned out because if the full number of peaches mature on a branch, they are undersized and lack flavor. Fruits are thinned midway in the season by commercial growers. Fresh peaches are easily bruised, so do not store well. They are most flavorful when they ripen on the tree and are eaten the day of harvest.
The peach tree can be grown in an espalier shape. The Baldassari palmette is a design created around 1950 used primarily for training peaches. In walled gardens constructed from stone or brick, which absorb and retain solar heat and then slowly release it, raising the temperature against the wall, peaches can be grown as espaliers against south-facing walls as far north as southeast Great Britain and southern Ireland.
Peaches and nectarines are best stored at temperatures of 0 °C (32 °F) and in high humidity. They are highly perishable, so are typically consumed or canned within two weeks of harvest.
Peaches are climacteric fruits and continue to ripen after being picked from the tree. However, though climacteric fruits continue to ripen nutritional quality may not improve after picking with studies showing Vitamin C content to be higher in peaches when ripened on the tree. Both ethylene and the plant hormone auxin are involved in regulating the ripening process. Though the ethylene antagonist 1-Methylcyclopropene can be used to delay the ripening of peaches its use negatively affects the arroma of the fruit.
The European earwig (Forficula auricularia) can be a minor to significant pest of the peach fruit, particularly when they are tightly clustered or have splits in the skin. The earwigs feed on the fruit and dirty them with waste.
The larvae of many moth species are of concern to peach growers. Frequently noted are the peachtree borer (Synanthedon exitiosa), the peach twig borer (Anarsia lineatella), the yellow peach moth (Conogethes punctiferalis), the fruit tree leafroller (Archips argyrospila), oriental fruit moths (Grapholita molesta), and the lesser peachtree borer (Synanthedon pictipes).
Other moths include the well-marked cutworm (Abagrotis orbis), the climbing cutworm (Abagrotis barnesi), Lyonetia prunifoliella, the grey dagger (Acronicta psi), ghost moth (Aenetus virescens), the march moth (Alsophila aescularia), fruit tree tortrix (Archips podanus), cherry fruit moth (Argyresthia pruniella), azalea leafminer Caloptilia zachrysa, peach fruit moth (Carposina sasakii), apple leaf skeletonizer (Choreutis pariana), honeydew moth (Cryptoblabes gnidiella), plum fruit moth (Cydia funebrana), codling moth (Cydia pomonella), figure of eight (Diloba caeruleocephala), cherry bark tortrix (Enarmonia formosana), apple leaf roller (Epiphyas postvittana), brown-tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea), the fruit tree borer (Maroga melanostigma), winter moth (Operophtera brumata), fruit-tree tortrix (Pandemis heparana), the wood groundling (Parachronistis albiceps), apple leaf miner Phyllonorycter crataegella, lesser bud moth (Recurvaria nanella), and false codling moth (Thaumatotibia leucotreta).
The tree is also a host plant for such species as the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), the shothole borer (Scolytus rugulosus), and plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar).
Green peach aphids (Myzus persicae) can be a significant problem on peach trees. They overwinter as eggs on the trees and feed upon them in the spring before moving to other host species during the summer. Two scale insects can cause serious damage to peach trees, the white peach scale (Pseudaulacaspis pentagona) and the San Jose scale (Comstockaspis perniciosa).
At best it is poor nectar and pollen source for honey bees, with the double flowering varieties particularly noted for not producing any usable resources for bees. Some fruiting cultivars also produce no pollen and nectar flow is often impacted by early frosts.
Though not native to North America, peach trees have become a host for caterpillars of the Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glacucus). Though they are not a significant pest.
Peach trees are prone to a disease called leaf curl, which usually does not directly affect the fruit, but does reduce the crop yield by partially defoliating the tree. Several fungicides can be used to combat the disease, including Bordeaux mixture and other copper-based products (the University of California considers these organic treatments), ziram, chlorothalonil, and dodine. The fruit is susceptible to brown rot or a dark reddish spot.
Hundreds of peach and nectarine cultivars are known. These are classified into two categories—freestones and clingstones. Freestones are those whose flesh separates readily from the pit. Clingstones are those whose flesh clings tightly to the pit. Some cultivars are partially freestone and clingstone, so are called semifree. Freestone types are preferred for eating fresh, while clingstone types are for canning. The fruit flesh may be creamy white to deep yellow, to dark red; the hue and shade of the color depend on the cultivar. The genetic diversity of peach cultivars is highest in China with 495 recognized cultivars.
Peach breeding has favored cultivars with more firmness, more red color, and shorter fuzz on the fruit surface. These characteristics ease shipping and supermarket sales by improving eye appeal. This selection process has not necessarily led to increased flavor, though. Peaches have a short shelf life, so commercial growers typically plant a mix of different cultivars to have fruit to ship all season long.
The cultivars commonly called nectarines have a smooth skin. It is on occasion referred to as a "shaved peach" or "fuzzless peach", due to its lack of fuzz or short hairs. Though fuzzy peaches and nectarines are regarded commercially as different fruits, with nectarines often erroneously believed to be a crossbreed between peaches and plums, or a "peach with a plum skin", nectarines belong to the same species as peaches. Several genetic studies have concluded nectarines are produced due to a recessive allele, whereas a fuzzy peach skin is dominant.
As with peaches, nectarines can be white or yellow, and clingstone or freestone. On average, nectarines are slightly smaller and sweeter than peaches, but with much overlap. The lack of skin fuzz can make nectarine skins appear more reddish than those of peaches, contributing to the fruit's plum-like appearance. The lack of down on nectarines' skin also means their skin is more easily bruised than peaches.
The history of the nectarine is unclear; the first recorded mention in English is from 1611, but they had probably been grown much earlier within the native range of the peach in central and eastern Asia. A number of colonial-era newspaper articles make reference to nectarines being grown in the United States prior to the Revolutionary War. The 28 March 1768 edition of the New York Gazette (p. 3), for example, mentions a farm in Jamaica, Long Island, New York, where nectarines were grown. Later, cultivars of higher quality with better shipping qualities were introduced to the United States by David Fairchild of the Department of Agriculture in 1906.
Peacherines are claimed to be a cross between a peach and a nectarine, but as they are the same species cannot be a true cross (hybrid); they are sometimes marketed in Australia and New Zealand. The linguist Louise Pound, in 1920, wrote that the term peacherine is an example of language stunt.
Flat peaches, or pan-tao, have a flattened shape, in contrast to ordinary near-spherical peaches.
Peach trees are also grown for ornamental value in gardens, but trees specifically selected for this purpose have small, inedible fruits.
In 2023, world production of peaches (combined with nectarines for reporting) was 27.1 million tonnes, led by China with 65% of the total. Spain, the next most productive country, only produced about 5% of the total (table). Peaches rank third in total production of temperate fruits after the apple and pear.
The U.S. state of Georgia is known as the "Peach State" due to its significant production and shipping of peaches in the 1870s and 1880s, with the first export of to New York occurring around 1853 and significant amounts being sold there by 1858. In 2014, Georgia was third in US peach production behind California and South Carolina. The largest peach producing countries in Latin America are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
Raw peach flesh is 88% water, 10% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). A medium-sized raw peach, weighing 100 g (3.5 oz), supplies 46 calories, and contains no micronutrients having a significant percentage of the Daily Value (DV, table). A raw nectarine has similar low content of nutrients. The glycemic load of an average peach (120 grams) is 5, similar to other low-sugar fruits.
Total polyphenols in mg per 100 g of fresh weight were 14–113 in white-flesh nectarines, 17–78 in yellow-flesh nectarines, 20–113 in white-flesh peaches, and 16–93 mg per 100 g in yellow-flesh peaches. The major phenolic compounds identified in peach are chlorogenic acid, catechins and epicatechins, with other compounds, identified by HPLC, including gallic acid and ellagic acid. Rutin and isoquercetin are the primary flavonols found in clingstone peaches. The levels of flavonols and cyanidins are highest in the skins. Though phenols vary by cultivar and due to the growing conditions in a growing season. Red-fleshed peaches are rich in anthocyanins, especially red fleshed varieties and their skins. malvin glycosides in clingstone peaches.
As with many other members of the rose family, peach seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, primarily amygdalin. Amygdalin decomposes into a sugar molecule,hydrogen cyanide gas, and benzaldehyde. Hydrogen cyanide poisons the action of a critical enzyme for the use of oxygen in cells, resulting in death in severe cases. While peach seeds are not the most toxic within the rose family (see bitter almond), large consumption of these chemicals from any source is potentially hazardous to animal and human health.
Peach allergy or intolerance is a relatively common form of hypersensitivity to proteins contained in peaches and related fruits (such as almonds). Symptoms range from local effects (e.g. oral allergy syndrome, contact urticaria) to more severe systemic reactions, including anaphylaxis (e.g. urticaria, angioedema, gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms). Adverse reactions are related to the "freshness" of the fruit: peeled or canned fruit may be tolerated.
Due to their close relatedness, the kernel of a peach stone tastes similar to almond, and peach stones are used to make a cheap version of marzipan, known as persipan.
The attractive smell of a ripe peach has 110 different volatile molecules combined, including alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, polyphenols and terpenoids. The proportions vary significantly between different cultivars of peach.
Peaches are not only a popular fruit, but also are symbolic in many cultural traditions, such as in art, paintings, and folk tales such as the Peaches of Immortality.
Peach blossoms are highly prized in Chinese culture. The ancient Chinese believed the peach to possess more vitality than any other tree because their blossoms appear before leaves sprout. When early rulers of China visited their territories, they were preceded by sorcerers armed with peach rods to protect them from spectral evils. On New Year's Eve, local magistrates would cut peach wood branches and place them over their doors to protect against evil influences. Peach wood was also used for the earliest known door gods during the Han. Another author writes:
Peachwood seals or figurines guarded gates and doors, and, as one Han account recites, "the buildings in the capital are made tranquil and pure; everywhere a good state of affairs prevails". Writes the author, further:
Similarly, peach trees would often be planted near the front door of a house to bring good fortune.
Peach kernels, tao ren (Chinese: 桃仁; pinyin: Táorén), are a common ingredient used in traditional Chinese medicine to dispel blood stasis and unblock bowels.
In an orchard of flowering peach trees, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took an oath of brotherhood in the opening chapter of the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Another peach orchard, in "The Peach Blossom Spring" by poet Tao Yuanming, is the setting of the favourite Chinese fable and a metaphor for utopias. A peach tree growing on a precipice was where the Taoist master Zhang Daoling tested his disciples.
The deity Shòu Xīng (Chinese: 寿星), a god of longevity, is usually depicted with a very large forehead and holding a staff in his left hand and a large peach in his right hand due its associations with a long life. A long-standing traditional birthday food for seniors is a symbolic longevity peach (shòutáo bao - 寿桃包), a type of lotus seed bun shaped like a peach, frequent in Taiwan and Cantonese culture.
The term fēntáo (Chinese: 分桃), which is variously translated as "half-eaten peach", "divided peach", or "sharing a peach", was first used by Han Fei, a Legalist philosopher, in his work Han Feizi. From this story it became a byword for homosexuality. The book records the incident when courtier Mizi Xia bit into an especially delicious peach and gave the remainder to his lover, Duke Ling of Wei, as a gift so that he could taste it, as well.
As recorded by the traveller Isabella Bird in 1898, wands made of peach wood are used in parts of Korean shamanism. During the third part of an exorcism ritual for malevolent spirits a wand made of an eastern branch of a peach tree is used. Originating from Daoism, the peach is one of ten symbols of longevity used in Korean art.
An important piece of Korean art features the peach. Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land is the only existing signed and dated work by An Kyŏn. It depicts the imagined utopian Peach Blossom Land from a fable by the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming.
The world's sweetest peach is grown in Fukushima, Japan. The Guinness world record for the sweetest peach is currently held by a peach grown in Kanechika, Japan, with a sugar content of 22.2%. However, a fruit farm in rural Fukushima, Koji grew a much sweeter peach, with a Brix score of 32°. Degrees Brix measures the sugar content of the fruit, and is usually between 11 and 15 for a typical peach from a supermarket.
Momotarō, whose name literally means "peach child", is a folktale character named after the giant peach from which he was birthed.
Two traditional Japanese words for the color pink correspond to blossoming trees: one for peach blossoms (momo-iro), and one for cherry blossoms (sakura-iro).
A Vietnamese mythic history states that in the spring of 1789, after marching to Ngọc Hồi and then winning a great victory against invaders from the Qing dynasty of China, Emperor Quang Trung ordered a messenger to gallop to Phú Xuân citadel (now Huế) and deliver a flowering peach branch to the Empress Ngọc Hân. This took place on the fifth day of the first lunar month, two days before the predicted end of the battle. The branch of peach flowers that was sent from the north to the centre of Vietnam was not only a message of victory from the Emperor to his consort, but also the start of a new spring of peace and happiness for all the Vietnamese people. In addition, since the land of Nhật Tân had freely given that very branch of peach flowers to the Emperor, it became the loyal garden of his dynasty.
The protagonists of The Tale of Kieu fell in love by a peach tree, and in Vietnam, the blossoming peach flower is the signal of spring. Finally, peach bonsai trees are used as decoration during Vietnamese New Year (Tết) in northern Vietnam.
Many famous artists have painted with peach fruits placed in prominence. Caravaggio, Vicenzo Campi, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Severin Roesen, Peter Paul Rubens, and Van Gogh are among the many influential artists who painted peaches and peach trees in various settings. Scholars suggest that many compositions are symbolic, some an effort to introduce realism. For example, Tresidder claims the artists of Renaissance symbolically used peach to represent heart, and a leaf attached to the fruit as the symbol for tongue, thereby implying speaking truth from one's heart; a ripe peach was also a symbol to imply a ripe state of good health. Caravaggio's paintings introduce realism by painting peach leaves that are molted, discolored, or in some cases have wormholes – conditions common in modern peach cultivation.
In literature, Roald Dahl deciding on using a peach in his children's fantasy novel James and the Giant Peach after considering many other fruits including an apple, pear, or cherry. He thought the flavor and flesh of the peach to be more exciting.
Despite it is not first or even second in peach production and the peach contributing far less than 1% of the state's agricultural production, the peach is strongly associated in American culture with the state of Georgia. However, the peach did not officially become the official fruit of Georgia until 1995. It has been proceeded by South Carolina, which named the peach its state fruit in 1984. They were joined in giving the peach an official state status by Delaware naming it the state flower in 1995 and designating peach pie as its official dessert in 2009. Alabama also named it the state tree fruit in 2006 in addition to the blackberry designated as the state fruit in 2004.
The peach was marketed by the Georgia Fruit Exchange and later the Georgia Peach Grower's Association as being particularly tasty and special from the 1910s to the 1960s. This also coincided with parts of Georgia wanting to distance itself from being, "the home of slavery and lynching and Confederate memorials," in the words of Frank Smith Horne. The local movement to create a new county centred on Fort Valley to be named Peach County sponsored Peach Blossom Festivals from 1922 to 1926. They promoted a vision of a new progressive south that also ignored the black labor upon which the peach harvest, like that of cotton, depended. Though the acreage of has declined to just one twelfth of its 1925 peak, from 1935, Georgia has been nicknamed the "Peach State".