Peach tree (Prunus persica)
Original title: Pessegueiro (Prunus Persica)
The peach tree, widely grown in Madeira, with an account of its fruit types and the districts producing the best peaches.
A tree of the family Rosaceae, subfamily Prunoideae, widely cultivated in Madeira. It is native to China and Afghanistan, and produces delicious fruits that are either smooth or covered in down. The former characterise the variety laevis and are known as pêssegos calvos (‘bald peaches’); their stones may separate easily from the flesh (pêssegos calvos molares) or cling firmly to it. In the downy peaches, too, the stones cling to the flesh sometimes strongly, sometimes only slightly: the former are called pêssegos burros or durázios, the latter pêssegos molares. The skin of these fruits may be yellow or white. The best peaches in Madeira are grown in Santana, Calheta, Arco da Calheta and Fajã da Ovelha; those grown in Funchal are generally of poor quality, and many are attacked by the larvae of various Diptera. Peaches ripen from July to September.
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Place
Places mentioned · 07
Abroad
- Arco da Calheta
Calheta. Produces some of Madeira's best peaches.
Arco da Calheta is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, created in 1572 around the chapel of São Brás, whose church holds sixteenth-century paintings. The Elucidário covers its early settlers such as the Andrades, sugar estates, chapels, entails, unrest in 1834 and 1887, and irrigation by the Rabaçal and Pico da Urze levadas.
- Calheta
Produces some of Madeira's best peaches.
Calheta is a town, parish and municipality on Madeira's south-west coast and one of the island's oldest settlements. The Elucidário covers its name, early settlers such as Pedro Berenguer, its church and many chapels, including one of a former Franciscan convent, and the 1834 riot.
- China
Given as a region of origin of the peach.
China is cited in the Elucidário as the country of origin of many plants grown in Madeira, including the tangerine, most bamboos, the apricot, the peach, the dwarf banana, the boganga and the cacho roxo. It is also named as one of the places where the palanquin was used to carry persons of rank.
- Fajã da Ovelha
Calheta. Produces some of Madeira's best peaches.
Fajã da Ovelha is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, western Madeira. It grew from the chapel of São Lourenço, and its new church was built in the 18th century. It is watered by the old Rabaçal levada, contains the Pico da Fonte do Bispo in its uplands, and is noted for producing some of Madeira's best peaches.
- Funchal
Its peaches are generally poor and often attacked by fly larvae.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Santana
Produces some of Madeira's best peaches.
Santana is a parish on Madeira's north coast, praised as the most picturesque of the north. It was created from São Jorge in the 16th century, and the entry covers its settlement, parish priests, church, localities and population.