World's Peaches, Plums Preserved in Unique Collection

Exotic peaches and plums from around the globe are safeguarded in greenhouses and orchards at America's official collection of these fruits. Known formally as the ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Fruit and Nut Crops, it is a living treasury of both common and uncommon peaches and plums.From the repository's offices, laboratories and greenhouses at Davis, Calif., it's only a short drive to the research orchards at Winters, where about 750 peach trees and about 700 plums flourish. Most of the peaches are varieties of Prunus persica, such as the historically important "Shanghai" and "J.H. Hale," two varieties that are in the parentage of nearly all of today's U.S.-grown peaches. Other distinctive peaches include a white-fleshed cling peach from Korea named "Yumyeong," and the red-fleshed "Sanguine de Tardiff" from France. Predominant in the plum collection are the European plum, Prunus domestica, produced as a fresh fruit or dried into prunes; and the Japanese plum, P. salicina, typically sold in this country as a dessert plum.