The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Peach

Prunus persica, Rosaceae, the rose family

The peach is known only in cultivation2. Kew traces it to north-central China2, and it is widely grown in temperate regions3.

Its name points the wrong way. In Greek, mēlon meant an apple or, more generally, any tree-fruit, and the physician Galen called the peach mēlon Persikon, the Persian apple4. The Latin persica, the peach tree, came from the Greek persikē, feminine of Persikos, Persian, and became the Old French pesche and the English peach3. A Chinese tree thus carries a Persian name, hidden in the English word and plain in the botanical Prunus persica2,3.

The same Greek lexicon has other apples of the kind: Dioscorides’ mēlon Armeniakon was the apricot, his mēlon Mēdikon the citron, and the mēlon Kydōnion the quince4.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Prunus persica, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Prunus persica, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the range, "as a cultigen from NC. China".
  3. peach, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: a small Chinese tree of the rose family, widely cultivated in temperate regions; the derivation through Old French pesche from Latin persica, the peach tree, from Greek persikē, feminine of Persikos, Persian.
  4. μῆλον (B), in Liddell, Scott and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, Logeion, University of Chicago. Supports: mēlon as "apple or (generally) any tree-fruit"; Galen's mēlon Persikon as the peach; Dioscorides' mēlon Armeniakon as the apricot and mēlon Mēdikon as the citron; mēlon Kydōnion as the quince.