The peach tree, Prunus persicia, belongs to the rose family and its fruit is a stone fruit. With a height of 1 to 8 metres, the peach tree is a relatively small tree with bare, straight branches. On the sunny side the branches turn red, on the side facing away from the sun they turn green. Between March and April the peach tree blooms with beautiful pink flowers. In most cases the flowers of the tree unfold before the leaves. The fruits have a diameter of 4 to 10 cm and a longitudinal furrow where they can easily be divided into two halves. The hairy skin of the fruit is pale green or yellow, on the sunny side it is much more strongly coloured. The juicy flesh is orange and tastes sweet. The kernel of the peach looks like an almond. It has a thick skin, deep furrows and is very hard. Peach kernels contain 32 - 45 % oil. Since peach trees are subject to vernalization, the trees need several hundred hours of winter cold to sprout their blossoms. In summer, however, the tree has a high need for warmth, which is why in Central Europe it is mainly cultivated in wine-growing regions. The average life expectancy of a peach tree is between 25 and 40 years.