The peach (Prunus persica) is a deciduous tree native to the region of Northwest China between the Tarim Basin and the north slopes of the Kunlun Mountains, where it was first domesticated and cultivated. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach or a nectarine. The specific name persica refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia (modern-day Iran), from where it was transplanted to Europe.
It belongs to the genus Prunus which includes the cherry, apricot, almond and plum, in the rose family. The peach is classified with the almond in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated seed shell. Due to their close relatedness, the inside of a peach stone tastes remarkably similar to almond, and peach stones are often used to make a cheap version of marzipan, known as persipan.
Peaches and nectarines are the same species, even though they are regarded commercially as different fruits. In contrast to peaches, whose fruits present the characteristic fuzz on the skin, nectarines are characterised by the absence of fruit-skin trichomes (fuzzless fruit); it is thought that a mutation in a single gene (MYB25) is responsible for the hair or no-hair difference between the two. China produced 58% of the world's total peaches and nectarines in 2016.
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Aren't these blossoms gorgeous! I love them. We are eating our way through our second basket of fresh peaches...a bonus of summer ending here in Ontario.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that about peaches and nectarines.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful blossom for a delicious fruit. A funny store to share: I was at the grocery store and my peaches rang up as nectarines. The price was very expensive so I told the cashier I don't want them and that I thought they were peaches. She said "Oh, they're the same things!" I replied "No,the peaches are 99 cents a lb and the nectarines are 2.99 a lb." ha ha!They may be the same fruit, but that was quite a price difference.
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