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Peach, (species Prunus persica), fruit tree of the rose family (Rosaceae), grown throughout the warmer temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Small to medium-sized, the tree seldom reaches 6.5 m (21 feet) in height. Under cultivation, however, it is usually kept between 3 and 4 m (10 and 13 feet) by pruning. Leaves are glossy green, lance-shaped, and long pointed; they usually have glands at their bases that secrete a fluid to attract ants and other insects. The flowers, borne in the leaf axils, are arranged singly or in groups of two or three at nodes along the shoots of the previous season’s growth. The five petals, usually pink but occasionally white, five sepals, and three whorls of stamens are borne on the outer rim of the short tube that forms the base of the flower. The pistil consists of a single carpel with a relatively long style and an enlarged basal portion, the ovary, which becomes the fruit.
