Species
+

Prunus persica (L.) Stokes

Melocoton (ES), Peach, Peach (EN), Pfirsich (DE)

Climate known 70 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The peach is a deciduous tree that bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics. Most are simply called peaches, while the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties are called nectarines. Though from the same species, they are regarded commercially as different fruits.

Text from Wikipedia, “Peach”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(L.) Stokes
Native to
China North-Central
Wild records
35 in range· 12 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
807mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jul 191 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 807 mm a year, wettest July at 191 mm, driest January at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Amygdalus communis var. persica (Batsch) Risso; Amygdalus ferganensis (Kostina & Rjabov) T.T.Yu & L.T.Lu; Amygdalus laevis (DC.) Lej.; Amygdalus laevis D.Dietr.; Amygdalus nucipersica (L.) Rchb. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (628 mm of 807 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.5 °C against a yearly mean of 13.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 807 mm a year, wettest July at 191 mm, driest January at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

807 mm a year at the habitat, 628 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 191 mm, driest January at 8 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 508 mm to 1225 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -9.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -9.5 °C, the absolute minimum -17.0 °C, about 98 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -11.7 °C to -1.2 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 807 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 34 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 16–36RH 56–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 34 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / -1–87 / 2–1012 / 6–1518 / 12–2224 / 17–2727 / 22–3029 / 24–3128 / 24–3024 / 20–2618 / 15–2212 / 7–156 / 1–9
Night °C-4 / -12–-1-2 / -8–12 / -3–58 / 4–1114 / 11–1618 / 15–2122 / 17–2421 / 16–2416 / 11–2010 / 5–133 / -3–6-2 / -9–1
Rain mm8 / 3–1913 / 5–2529 / 13–4643 / 27–8376 / 46–121114 / 61–184191 / 117–265160 / 100–21787 / 60–17553 / 29–8723 / 10–3910 / 4–22
DLI18 / 16–2023 / 19–2428 / 23–3134 / 29–3736 / 32–4036 / 31–3933 / 31–3630 / 29–3427 / 21–3023 / 17–2418 / 15–1916 / 14–18
RH %56 / 50–6256 / 49–6257 / 49–6157 / 49–6058 / 51–6060 / 53–6364 / 59–6663 / 59–6661 / 56–6558 / 53–6457 / 51–6356 / 50–62

Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 35 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1114:5967 (34.275, 118.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 34 distinct grid cells holding the 35 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1114:5967 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_118.125, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 27 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina North-Central· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Krym, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Libya, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Laos, Vietnam, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, New Zealand North, Marianas, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northwest, El Salvador, Ecuador, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.97, 107.24 · in the densest population, 9 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 35 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 12 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 977 km away. 1782 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 35 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persicaPrunus persica

Photographs: (c) Evan M. Raskin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) lejones417, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Andrew Tree, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Prunus persica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The high-quality draft genome of peach (Prunus persica) identifies unique patterns of genetic diversity, domestication and genome evolution
The International Peach Genome Initiative, Ignazio Verde, Albert G. Abbott, Simone Scalabrin (2013) · Nature Genetics
Selection of reliable reference genes for gene expression studies in peach using real-time PCR
Zhaoguo Tong, Zhihong Gao, Fei Wang, Jun Zhou (2009) · BMC Molecular Biology
Development of microsatellite markers in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] and their use in genetic diversity analysis in peach and sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.)
Elisabeth Dirlewanger, Pierre Cosson, Muriel Tavaud, María José Aranzana (2002) · Theoretical and Applied Genetics
Control of Peach Tree Growth and Productivity by Regulated Water Supply, Tree Density, and Summer Pruning1
D. J. Chalmers, Piers D. Mitchell, L. Van Heek (1981) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Cell wall metabolism during maturation, ripening and senescence of peach fruit
David A. Brummell (2004) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Polygalacturonases: Many Genes in Search of a Function1
Kristen A. Hadfield, A. B. Bennett (1998) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Phytochemical Analysis of Medicinal Plants Occurring in Local Area of Mardan
Abdul Wadood (2013) · Biochemistry & Analytical Biochemistry
Characterization of microsatellite markers in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch]
Bryon Sosinski, M. Gannavarapu, L. D. Hager, L E Beck (2000) · Theoretical and Applied Genetics

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Prunus 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 171 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.