Prunus persica (L.) Batsch

Peach

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Peach is an introduced deciduous tree in the Rose family (Rosaceae). It is native to eastern Asia. Peaches are planted throughout Alabama for their edible fruit and as an ornamental. It commonly escapes from discarded pits from fruit that have been consumed by humans or animals. Peaches grow along fence rows, on roadside edges, around old home sites, in urban woodlands, and in other disturbed areas. It is a small to medium sized deciduous tree from 15-30 feet in height. The bark is dark gray-mottled with prominent lenticels. Young twigs are green or reddish-brown in color and glabrous. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, oblong to lanceolate in outline, with serrate margins. The teeth are gland tipped. The leaves are glabrous and often falcate. Flowers are solitary appearing before the emergence of the leaves. The individual flowers have 5 green sepals and 5 pink, white, or red petals. Doubled flowered forms are grown as ornamentals. The fruit is a globose yellowish-orange pubescent drupe. The fruit contains a single large, flattened stony pit (the woody endocarp surrounding the seed). Peaches are widely cultivated and numerous fruiting and ornamental varieties are readily available from nurseries. It is one of the most commonly cultivated fruit trees in Alabama.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native

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