Indian Blood Cling Peach

Spaniards introduced this novel peach to Mexico in the sixteenth century. By the next century, European explorers in southeastern North America were astonished to find this Old-World fruit being grown by native tribes. This was possible because, unlike most fruit varieties that are maintained solely by complex methods of budding or grafting, the 'Indian Blood' can be grown easily from seed. Nomadic tribes and traders must have carried it north from Mexico. Thomas Jefferson ordered this variety in 1807 from Thomas Main, a Washington nurseryman, who described it as "very large and excellent." The fruit, entirely splashed and mottled with scarlet, tiger-like stripes, is sometimes twelve inches round. The skin resembles a beet: scarlet, tough, stringy, meaty, although pleasantly flavored and brisk. 

Text adapted from Fruit and Fruit Trees of Monticello by Peter J. Hatch.

In Bloom at Monticello is made possible by support from The Richard D. and Carolyn W. Jacques Foundation.