Abstract: There were two peach descriptions, one from IPRGI in 1980, another from China in 1990. Yet the former only has referenced cultivars without quantity grades, the latter only has some characteristics list. Both of them make breeders difficult to share genetic resource information. In order to descript the main quantitative characteristics, a new system was established. 10 kinds characteristics of 346-476 peach cultivars were investigated from 1986 to 2002 in National Peach Genetic Collection of Zhengzhou City in China. These characters and their coefficients of variation were flower diameter19.55%, length diameter of fruit 14.24%, cheek diameter of fruit 10.36%, suture diameter of fruit 11.44%, stone length 19.04%, stone width 10.86%, stone thickness 11.19%, leaf length 7.9%, leaf width 10.55 and leaf stalk length 19.03%, respectively. Grade index and reference cultivars were given by statistical data for peach description. These grade indexes were recorded on 1-5 scales, and the third grade as a middle one occupied 39% or more distribution . In general, two reference cultivars for each grade were given, one is USA cultivar, another is Chinese cultivar. The authors try to use these as the reference cultivars, which are planted or used by breeders widely in China.

Key words: Peach, Genetic resource, Botanical quantity characters, Description