View Single Post
  #23   Report Post  
Old 25-02-2003, 08:03 PM
Stewart Robert Hinsley
 
Posts: n/a
Default Are apple and peach genetically related (and how)?

In article , Beverly
Erlebacher writes

I'd guess that peach and almond are most closely related of the
domesticated species, based on the similarity of that thing which
surrounds the seed which we were just told is not part of it, no matter
what it looks like. Also, peach and almond have been crossed to
introduce more cold-hardiness into the almond. (And, as you say, peach
is in the subfamily Amygdaloideae ;-))


I was skimming through Bean yesterday, and according to them you're
right, or near enough so. Peach and almond are both placed in subgenus
Amygdalus, but there's some support for splitting the peach off as
subgenus Persica. I don't think any of the other almonds and peaches are
domesticated, but Prunus tenella, at least, is grown as an ornamental.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley