Peach

Where it grows

Despite the name persica, peach was domesticated in the Loess Plateau of northwestern China at least 4,000 years ago, only spreading west to Persia along the Silk Road before reaching the Mediterranean. China still grows more than half the world crop today, followed by Spain, Italy, and the United States.

How to recognise it

Peach trees are small and spreading, with smooth reddish-grey bark, lance-shaped serrated leaves, and showy pink five-petalled blossoms that open before the leaves emerge — the famous peach blossom of Tang-dynasty poetry. The fruit is a single-stoned drupe with downy skin (or smooth skin in the case of nectarines, a genetic variant).

Uses

Peaches are eaten fresh, canned in syrup, baked into cobblers, blended into nectar and the Italian bellini cocktail, and distilled into peach brandy. Pressing the kernels yields a fragrant oil used in cosmetics. Peach blossom cultivars are widely grown for spring ornament in East Asia.

Lifespan

Commercial orchards typically replant peaches after 15 to 20 years, as productivity drops and disease pressures rise, making them one of the shortest-lived fruit trees.