Chinese Wild Peach (Prunus davidiana) — identification, habitat & look-alikes

Chinese Wild Peach is a wild peach tree native to China and Korea, with pale flowers that open before its leaves in early spring. In the United States, it is occasionally grown in gardens or used as a base for grafting cultivated peach trees.

Appearance

Growth form: This tree usually reaches 20–30 ft (6–9 m) and develops a rounded crown.
Leaves: The leaves are narrow, long-pointed, and finely toothed, usually 2–5 in (5–13 cm) long.
Flowers: Single, five-petaled flowers about 1 in (2.5 cm) wide are whitish and open before the leaves.
Flowering time: In St. Louis, it usually blooms in March; the broader garden season is March–April.
Fruit: The round yellow fruit is about 1 in (2.5 cm) wide and fuzzy, with thin, dry flesh around one large stone.

Look-alikes

PeachPrunus persica

Chinese Wild Peach has small, yellow, fuzzy fruit with thin, dry flesh. Edible peaches have thicker, sweeter flesh, but blossoms alone can be hard to tell apart.

Why they get mixed upThey are close relatives with similar pink flowers, narrow leaves, and fuzzy fruit.

Where it lives

Typical habitats: sunny slopes
thickets
woodland edges
Range: The wild range extends from China into Korea. In the United States, it is grown occasionally as a garden tree or peach .
Preferred conditions: It grows in full sun to light shade in well-drained soil and is hardy in USDA Zones 4–8.
Flowering: Flowers Mar–Apr
Flowers Mar–Apr

Growing it

Propagation: The species is grown from seed and is sometimes used as cold-hardy rootstock for cultivated peaches.

Name and classification

About the name: It was also called Prunus persica var. davidiana or Amygdalus davidiana. It is also called David's peach.

Conservation

IUCN Red List: LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction

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