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Peach
Prunus persica

tree fruit (shrub) of the Rosaceae family, genus Prunus
(Apricot tree, Almond tree, Cherry, Cherrylaurel, Wild cherry tree, Peach, Cherry Plum).

Etymology: from Latin "Persicum", "Persian" because one have thought for a long time that this tree was native to Persian.
Origin: China. It is brought into Persian by the caravans of the Silk Road (as the apricot tree), then in Greece by Alexander the Great and in Italy under Augustus's reign. At the time of François Ier, there are some forty varieties of fish, some of which have names like the lovely nipple of Venus, the wonderful, beautiful Vitry, the beautiful Chevreuse. The Spanish introduced it to America in the sixteenth century and it spread so quickly and so widely that some writers thought it was a fruit native to South America.
Varieties: many varieties, including peaches with yellow flesh (catch apricot, more strongly and keeping better) and peaches with white flesh. Nectarines (smooth skin and close-fitting stone) and nectarines (smooth skin and free stone) are differentiated.
Habitat: sunny and mild zones.
Lifespan: what matters is not so much the life of the tree, but the length of its production: a peach tree can produce during 15 - 20 years.
Height: shrub of 5 m tall.
Deciduous leaves,oblongues narrow, slightly toothed (they resemble those of the cherry tree, but less broad).
Pink flowers.
Fruit: the peach is is a drupe, skin smooth and soft chair, white to orange depending on the variety. The fruit contains the stone which is the seed. The peach is harvested at the hand, in summer. Fruits, delicate, are quickly placed in cold storage.

Use: peach tree is an orchard tree (South of France).
Advices of maintenance: for the pruning of the fruit trees, see the page. The excess of drought is particularly harmful to Peach trees: it is necessary to water them in summer.
As most fruit trees, Peach tree is threatened by bacteria, insects and of other diseases: monilioses of flowers, Mediterranean calyx of fruits, oïdium, mark...
For the treatment, see this page.

Legends and traditions: in Egypt, Peach tree was dedicated to Harpocrate, God of Silence. In China, the peach is one of the attributes of Cheou-Sing, "Star of old age", God of longevity. The peach brings thousand springs, says popular iconography. The peach and peach tree are symbols of immortality and the Immortals eat peach blossoms. The Chinese vases often bear a decor of peach flowers to wish longevity.
In Japan, the flower of Peach tree is linked to marriage and is a symbol of virginity and of fidelity.
 

Peach with double flowers, Prunus persica "'Klara Meyer"

Origin: China.
Lifespan: 100 years (that of right was planted in 1910).
Height: 10 m tall.
Shape: in bowl, a bit as the locust tree, with branches with tendency to fall down.
Trunk: tortuous.
Écorce : grey, cracked, and deeply cracked on the elderly plants.
Flowers: peach tree with double flowers are covered in April with a nice blossoming of pink flowers in bobbles, a bit as some decorative cherry trees. These flowers are not fertile.

 
 
 

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