“The peach (Prunus persica) is a deciduous tree native to the region of Northwest China, where it was first domesticated and cultivated. The name persica refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia (modern-day Iran), from where it was transplanted to Europe… The peach is classified with the almond in the subgenus Amygdalus… Due to their close relatedness, the kernel of a peach stone tastes remarkably similar to almond…”


WIkipedia, Peach

“Known as ‘tao,’ the peach is the most sacred plant of the Chinese Taoists, and is considered a magic fruit and a symbol of immortality, reflected in the “Peach Blossom Spring,” an essay by a Chinese poet during the 4th century BCE.”


“In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality (Chinese: 仙桃; pinyin: xiāntáo) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them. Peaches symbolizing immortality.”


Wikipedia, Peaches of Immortality

“In interpreting the Greek skitaloi (“lewd fellows,” “lechers,” or “lascivious ones”), Hesychius uses the phrase aphrodisiōn kai tēs prounikiastēs nykterinēs. This is most interesting for aphrodisiōn means something belonging to the goddess of love – we recall that Aphrodite was a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Nectarines are, of course, peaches, and peaches… were sacred to the goddess Isis and the peach-tree branch to her son Harpokrates, patron of mystical secrets in Egypt and elsewhere.”


“[Plutarch] tells us about the Greco-Egyptian figure Harpocrates (or the infant Horos, son of Isis and Osiris): “by this infant god the Egyptians represented the first shooting up or budding forth of succulent plants. . . . The bud, or opening blossom of the peach tree, was also in a peculiar manner sacred to Harpocrates.”


Harpocrates was the Greek-Egyptian God of silence. Sacred to him were first fruits of vegetables, lentils, and, above all, the peach tree. His mother was Isis, of course, and we may note that in the Valentinian Pleroma, the primal Mother, the First Thought of the incomprehensible Bythos, is called Sig., ‘silence.’ As the Nag Hammadi text Eugnostos the Blessed relates: “Sophia, his consort, who was called ‘Silence,’ because in reflecting without a word she perfected her Greatness.”


Tobias ChurtonGnostic Mysteries of Sex: Sophia the Wild One and Erotic Christianity.

The boy is born from the peach – illustration c. 1889, second edition crepe-paper reprint of Momotaro, or The Little Peachling.

Bee pollinating a peach flower