One of the most important breeding stock varieties, the Chinese Cling Peach impressed southerners with its gargantuan size, its blanched yellow skin, its rich tasting flesh, and its prolific fruiting. There were liabilities with the fruit, foremost of which was a inclination to spoil. It was and is a moderately sweet peach, with a BRIX level averaging about 8.5 in a stress free season.  As its name indicates, the flesh adheres to the stone of this variety. Immensely important in the history of Chinese Peach breeding, it was the fruit that built the reputation of the cit of Shanghai. The eating quality was judged good in the nineteenth century, but other varieties (Belle of Georgia, Heath Cling) were judged superior among the white fleshed peaches. USDA http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1006777 .

Alternate name:  General Lee, Shanghai Honey Nectar Peach.  

Henry Lyons of Columbia, South Carolina secured this famous tree from China in the 1840s.  Lyons disseminated this peach to various pomologists throughout the South.  One of the persons who received trees was Samuel Rumph of Georgia.  He crossed it with an Early Crawford, to created the greatest market Peach the South would ever see: the Elberta—shippable, big, and not prone to fast decay. 

Atlanta Nursery Company Catalog 1891. Very large; skin clear and straw color, with a delicately mottled, light red cheek; flesh juicy, sweet, and and when fully ripe most delicious.  Remarkable for its size, beauty, and productiveness; July 10. Inclined to rot

Nurseries that sold Chinese Cling prior to 1920:

Alabama Nursery Company, Huntsville AL 1900. D. Beatie, Atlanta Nursery, 1891, 1895. W. Craft’s Cedar Grover Nursery, Salem, NC 1893. Cherokee Nursery, Waycross, GA 1893. Clingman Nursery & Orchard, Kiethville LA 1908. Colmant Nurseries, West End AL 1904. Smith Brothers Concord Nursery, Concord GA 1909. Delaware Nurseries, Milford DE 1910. Chattanooga Nurseries Dixie Garden Handbook, Chattanooga TN 1907. S. Downer & Sons Nursery, Fairview KY 1870. J. Berckmans Fruitland Nurseries, Augusta GA 1877. William Summer Pomaria Nursery, Pomaria SC 1856. C. Ferrell Planter’s Nurseries, Humboldt TN 1894. Franklin Davis Richmond Nurseries, Richmond VA 1869. Van Lindley Nursery, Pomona NC 1915. Turkey Creek Nursuries, Macclenny FL 1906. Charles Wright, Peachland Nurseries, Seaford DE 1891, Munson Hill Nurseries & Greenhouses, Falles Church VA 1908. Forked Deer Nursery, Curve TN 1890. T. Hood Old Dominion Nursery, Richmond VA 1894.  L. Taber, Glen St. Mary Nursery, Glen St. Mary FL 1894. W. Fitz, Southern Apple & Peach Culturist, Richmond VA 1872.

Image. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Deborah Passmore, 1893.

David S. Shields