Editing Peach (section)

== Taxonomy ==
[[File:The peaches of New York (1917) (14780111494).jpg|thumb|'Crosby' cultivar in ''The Peaches of New York'', 1917{{sfn|Hedrick et al. 1917|p=202}}]]
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.{{sfn|POWO 2024}} 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 [[Variety (botany)|varieties]] beginning consensus towards the modern classification.{{sfn|Faust|Timon|1995|pp=332–333}} This was supported by breeding experiments as early as 1906 showing the hairlessness of nectarines is a [[recessive trait]].{{sfn|Seelig|Fogle|Hesse|2007}} 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.{{sfn|Lingdi|Bartholomew|2003}} More than 200 scientific names have been published that are considered [[synonym (botany)|synonyms]] of ''Prunus persica'' by [[Plants of the World Online]] (POWO).{{sfn|POWO 2024}} Though the majority of sources agree on its classification as ''Prunus persica'', there is division on the correct [[Author citation (botany)|author citation]] for the name. Most sources, such as POWO,{{sfn|POWO 2024}} [[World Flora Online]],{{sfn|WFO 2024}} and the [[Flora of North America]] give August Batsch credit.{{sfn|Rohrer 2020b}} However, a few sources such as World Plants maintained by the botanist Michael Hassler instead credit [[Jonathan Stokes]] with [[Priority (biology)|priority]] dated to 1812.{{sfn|Hassler 2024}}

''Prunus persica'' is classified in ''[[Prunus]]'' with other [[stone fruit]]s within the rose family, [[Rosaceae]].{{sfn|WFO 2024}} The further classification into a [[subgenus]] or [[Section (botany)|section]] is disputed. The work of [[Alfred Rehder]], published in 1940, has been widely used to group the species of ''Prunus''.{{sfn|Rohrer 2020a}} 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.{{sfn|McVaugh|1951|pp=279, 283–284}} 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''.{{sfn|Rohrer 2020a}} In 2013 Shuo Shi and collaborators published research where they proposed it be part of subgenus [[Prunus subg. Prunus|''Prunus'']] together with the plums and cherries, but in a section named ''Persicae'', now corrected to [[Prunus subg. Prunus#Sect. Persica|''Persica'']].{{sfn|Shi et al. 2013|p=1070}} However, these groupings are not yet widely accepted.{{sfn|Rohrer 2020a}}

The greatest genetic diversity in peaches is found in China and where it is generally agreed to have been domesticated.{{sfn|Byrne et al. 2009|p=512}} The species is often thought to be a [[cultigen]], a [[taxa]] that has its origins in cultivation rather than as a wild species.{{sfn|POWO 2024}}{{sfn|Li|1983|p=34}}

[[File:Prunus stones-kansuensis persica davidiana.png|thumb|''Prunus kansuensis'' (left), ''Prunus persica'', feral type (center), and ''Prunus davidiana'' var. ''davidiana'' (right)]]
The closest relatives of the peach are the [[Chinese bush peach]] (''Prunus kansuensis''), [[Chinese wild peach]] (''Prunus davidiana''),  the [[smooth stone peach]] (''Prunus mira'').{{sfn|Yu et al. 2018|pp=5–6}} 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.{{sfn|Yu et al. 2018|p=2}}

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 [[Sequencing|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.{{sfn|Verde et al. 2013}}

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.{{sfn|Verde et al. 2013}}

Though not a separate grouping genetically, nectarines are regarded as different fruits commercially. The difference is the lack of fuzz, the [[trichome]]s, on the skin of the fruits.{{sfn|Vendramin et al. 2014|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Vendramin et al. 2014|p=1, 12}}

=== Fossil record ===
Fossil [[endocarp]]s 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.{{sfn|Su et al. 2015|pp=1–3}} Genetic evidence supports a very early emergence of edibility in the wild ancestors of the peach.{{sfn|Yu et al. 2018|pp=1–2, 5–7}}

=== Names ===
[[File:Amygdalus persica Mann.jpg|thumb|From ''Deutschlands wildwachsende Arzney-Pflanzen'' (Germany's Wild Medicinal Plants), 1828]]
The genus name ''Prunus'' is from Latin for plum. The [[specific name (botany)|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.{{sfn|Faust|Timon|1995|p=332}}

The modern English word  – and its cognates in many European languages such as the German {{Lang|de|Pfirsich}} and Finnish {{Lang|fi|persikka}} – also have Latin origins.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=274–275}} In ancient Rome the peach was called {{Lang|la|persicum malum}} or simply {{Lang|la|persicum}} meaning {{Gloss|Persian apple}}.{{sfn|Durkin|2009|p=115}} This became the Late Latin {{Lang|la|pessica}} and in turn the medieval {{Lang|la|pesca}}. In Old French it was variously the {{Lang|fro|peche}}, {{Lang|fro|pesche}}, or {{Lang|fro|peske}}. The first usage in England was as the surname ''Pecche'' in about 1184–1185.{{sfn|Barnhart|1995|p=549}} 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.{{sfn|OED 2025c}} Peach trees are also, less frequently, called ''common peaches''.{{sfn|NC State Extension}}

The various cultivars of peach with smooth skinned fruits are called nectarines. This word was coined by English speakers, originally as an adjective meaning {{Gloss|nectar-like}}, from ''nectar'' and the suffix ''-ine'', with the first use in print in 1611.{{sfn|OED 2025b}}{{sfn|OED 2025a}}