Peaches Prunus persica gave rise to both the almond and the peach, they are closely related, was probably native to Central Asia. The peach evolved toward the east of central Asia, toward Western China. The wild peaches of China show enormous variability, with flat fruit, beaked fruit, round fruit, red skin, whites skin, and yellow or white flesh. Our ancestors radiating out of Africa into Central and Western Asia would probably found a much smaller fruit than the one we know today, but it would still be welcome as a summer treat in the hot, dry woodlands of the West Asian interior. Two other species, P. ferganensis of Central Asia and P. mira of West Asia also have edible fruit, but they are inferior to the peach (altho' P. ferganensis has been domesticated in the former USSR).

With agriculture came domestication, and peaches have been cultivated in China for millennia. Almost all peach seedlings produce worthwhile fruit, and they don't take long to come into bearing, so villagers selecting larger or better tasting fruit would soon have improved the fruit. Traders on the silk road took the peach from China to Kashmir and over the central Asian mountains to Iraq (known as Persia in early historic times). When it arrived in Persia and adjacent countries isn't known, but it soon became naturalized there. It is mentioned in Egyptian records about 3,400 years ago, however, so it must have arrived some long time before then. The spread to Europe via South West Asia and the middle East was inevitable. The peach may have been introduced to Greece by Alexander the Great, after his epic wars in Central Asia. The Europeans thought the peach came from Persia, so named this fruit from China 'persica', which means 'Persia'. From Europe, the peach. went to the new world with Spanish and Portuguese explorers and colonizers of the 16th to17th centuries. Interestingly, the Spanish introduced the peach to the Northern Florida/Georgia coast of the USA.

Peaches are a fairly ephemeral fruit of the summer season. They don't keep well, have to be picked at exactly the right stage if they are to ripen 'off the tree' but not bruise in store, and so are worth the price being asked. Firmer fleshed, deep yellow varieties are grown for canning, and these represent excellent value.

One peach ( of around 100 gram size) supplies about 5% of an adults minimum daily Niacin (B3) needs. Fresh and canned peaches have about the same amount of vitamin A, with one medium sized peach having about 530 International Units.