3 4 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t
STORY AND ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF COX
Life would not be complete without sun
shine masquerading as fruit, better known as
a tree-ripened peach.
Peaches mean summer, and summer means wonderful stone fruits—all relatives of the peach. e closest relative is the
nectarine, which essentially is a fuzzless peach, the result of a chance mutation in a peach flower bud. Nectarines have ap-
peared spontaneously on peach trees many times over the 4,000 years since peaches were first cultivated in western China.
ANATOMY OF A
