# How closely related are peaches nectarines and plums **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056 "2001-01-15T01:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/1 "2001-01-15T01:11:07Z")
So we’ve got a little bet going… My “friend”, **Crack’dOff** claims that the nectarine is a cross between plums and peaches. I claim he’s full of shit. Some references please? We’ve got a half of speed riding on this. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/2 "2001-01-15T01:32:55Z")
From Funk & Wagnall’s: “Peach seed occasionally give rise to to trees that bear nectarines, and nectarine seeds may give ris to trees bearing either peaches or nectarines” This penom. has nothing to do with artifical cross-pollenation with plums, or from stray plum pollen in the peach orchard. It’s just the peach hedging its genetic bets that if mutation were required, it would have an option. And I’m so pleased to both fight ignorance AND accomodate someone’s aquisition of a half of speed, all in one post, I can’t tell you. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/3 "2001-01-15T01:35:28Z")
[Nectarines](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,56541+1,00.html) are a variety, _nectarina_ of the [peach](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/2/0,5716,60332+1,00.html), species _Prunus persica_. [Plums](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,61980+1,00.html) are also members of the genus _Prunus_; the common European plum is _P. domestica_. Nectarines do not appear to be crosses between _P. persica_ and _P. domesticus_. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/4 "2001-01-15T01:41:17Z")
Incidentally, the genus \*[Prunus\*](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,63226+1,00.html) includes, in addition to plums and peaches and nectarines, the [apricot](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/2/0,5716,8202+1,00.html), the [cherry](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,24226+1,00.html), and the [almond](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,5944+1,00.html). Pretty yummy genus. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/5 "2001-01-15T02:07:48Z")
“Prunus” you say? I’m nobody’s botanist, but was taught in the gardens of my youth to seperate the drupes from the pomes. A drupe, you know, is any fruit shaped like a lady’s bottom and (appropriately) with with a stone for a soul; including all those cited by MEBuckner, as well as the olive. A pome is any fruit like the apple or pear whose fruit rose from the swelled stem of the spring blossom. Look at any apple and you’ll see a dried up flower in its butt. Thanks for the food threads, guys. Us old men lose interest in the board when it’s overrun with flame wars & sex stuff. After a certain age sex and anger still have their places, but the carbohydrate is ultimately king of one’s metablolism. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-closely-related-are-peaches-nectarines-and-plums/50056/6 "2001-01-15T05:16:32Z")
Well, i’ll take a stab since you asked me too, oldie. Nectarines are not a cross between plums and peaches. Plums are Prunus salicina, or P. domestica. Peaches are Prunus persica, and nectarines are Prunus persica nucipersica (I’m not sure, and i should know, but i think it’s a subspecies). Nectarines are basically hairless peaches. Sometimes they’ll differ in flavor. Slithy: um, you’re wrong about the pome fruits. The fruit isnt the swelled up stem, it _is_ the ovary (which is why it has seeds), just as with peaches and plums.