The source of the low-chilling trait in peach breeding is low quality, soft
fruited, small, white fleshed peaches from south China such as 'Peento', '
Okinawa', and 'Hawaiian'. These were intercrossed with local clones to deve
lop commercially acceptable low-chill cultivars in the programs in the U.S.
(Florida), Brazil (Pelotas and Sao Paulo), and Mexico (Queretaro and Chapi
ngo). The work at these various sites except for the work between Chapingo
and Florida, have developed independently with only an occasional exchange
of germplasm. The founding clone analysis and data from isozymes, RAPDs, an
d morphological analyses indicate that this low-chill germplasm is more div
erse than the U.S, high-chill germplasm since it combines the U.S, high-chi
ll germplasm with local cultivars from Brazil and Mexico and the exotic low
-chill south China germplasm.