Callery Pear
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| iCallery Pear | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Callery Pear fruit in winter
|
||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Pyrus calleryana Decne. |
The Callery Pear (Pyrus calleryana) is a species of pear native to China. It is a deciduous tree growing to 15-20 m tall, with a conic to rounded crown, and often thorny branches. The leaves are oval, 4-7 cm long, glossy dark green above, slightly paler below. The flowers are produced in early spring before the leaves expand fully, and are white, with five petals, and about 2-3 cm diameter; they have a sickly-sweet smell that some have likened to semen, decaying crab meat, or jasmine and dog vomit. The fruit is less than one cm in diameter, hard, almost woody until softened by frost, after which it is readily taken by birds, which disperse the seeds in their droppings. In summer, the foliage is dark green and very smooth, and in autumn the leaves commonly turn brilliant colours, anything from yellow and orange to more common red, pink, purple, and bronze. Sometimes, several of these colours may be present on an individual leaf. However, the colour often occurs very late in fall, and the leaves may killed by a frost before full colour can develop.
[edit] Cultivation
It is widely planted throughout North America as an ornamental tree. The symmetry of several cultivars lends to their use in somewhat formal settings, such as office parks or industrial parks. It is commonly planted for its decorative value, but its hard little fruits are taken by birds. Its beautiful white blossoms can be seen in early spring along the boulevards of many eastern U.S. towns. At the latitude of Pittsburgh, PA the trees often remain green until mid-November, and in warm autumns, the colours are often a brilliant end to the fall colour season, while in a cold year they may get frozen off before colouring. In the South, they tend to be among the more reliable colouring trees.
The Callery Pear is proving to be an invasive species in some areas of North America, pushing out native American plants and trees. Self-sown plants often differ from the selected cultivars in less regular shape, and also in frequently being densely thorny.
There are several cultivars in commerce, including 'Aristocrat', 'Autumn Blaze', 'Bradford' (Bradford Pear, the most commonly planted cultivar), 'Capital', 'Cleveland Select', 'Fauriei', 'Redspire', and 'Whitehouse'.
The neat dense upward growth of 'Bradford', which makes it desirable in cramped urban spaces, also results in a multitude of narrow, weak forks, unless corrected by selective pruning at an early stage. These weak crotches make the Bradford Pear very susceptible to storm damage where snowfall is heavy or when ice storms occur, or during the high winds of severe thunderstorms. Because of this, and the relatively short lifespan that results (typically less than 25 years), many groups have discouraged their use in landscaping in favour of other stronger trees including other Callery Pear cultivars like 'Cleveland Select', but also more locally native tree species.
