A peach is the fuzzy-skinned, single-stoned fruit of Prunus persica, a small deciduous tree of the rose family. Ripe, it is intensely sweet and fragrant, its golden-to-blushed flesh dripping with juice and perfumed with the coconut-creamy lactones that define "peachy." Eaten out of hand, grilled, poached, baked into cobblers and pressed into nectar and brandy, it is one of summer's signature fruits.