Apricots, peaches and nectarines and plums are all related, members of the rose family, but originated in different parts of the world.
Apricots and peaches originated in China and were cultivated there by 2000 BC. While the origins of the plum are complicated – it is supposed they started in central Asia and evolved westwards into European plums and eastwards to make Japanese and American species – the origin of the nectarine is a complete mystery. The first mention of them – fuzz-less peaches – was in France in medieval times.
Apricot stones have been found at Roman sites all over the former empire. Plum stones have been found at Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Europe and there are records of plum orchards in medieval monasteries in England. Their most famous “unearthing†was when Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was raised in 1982 and found to contain 100 plums of five varieties. Peaches arrived in Greece in the 4th century BC – probably brought there by Alexander the Great, and when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD it buried peach trees growing in courtyards in Pompei.
Peach stones have also been found at Roman sites in Britain, but then they seem to have disappeared until Henry VIII’s gardener received trees from France in the 16th century.
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