PLANT LIBRARY
Peach tree
Peach tree comes from « persica », even though it’s not originating from Persia but from China, where it has been domesticated for more than 5000 years. Its flowers are a symbol of fidelity in Japan, its fruits represent longevity. According to a Chinese legend, divine peach trees were growing, and brought immortality to who ate it. Flowers, fruit and leaves of the peach tree have now shocn their healing virtues. Besides, a well-known expression reveals the benefits of the fruit for the skin “having a peach skin”, meaning a soft and velvety skin.
Shrub with rapid growth, peach tree has a slick bark and can reach between 2 to 7 meters high. Its thin leaves are a frank green, and smell like almond. They are oblong, slightly toothed and measure between 8 to 15 centimeters long. Blossom happens between the end of winter and summer, depending on species. Its flowers, white to pink colored, are composed by 5 petals. They’ll leave fruits, which mature from July to September. Peach is a fleshy drupe, mostly spheric. Its composed by a velvety skin, yellow or orange, by a juicy and sugary pulp, containing in the middle a pit.
Nowadays, peach tree is appreciated for its edible fruit, but is also known for its laxative, sedative and worming properties. In cosmetic, phenolic compounds of its leaves have an antioxidant, soothing an anti-microbial activity.