Pyrus calleryana Decne.

Bradford Pear; Callery Pear

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Callery Pear is an introduced deciduous tree in the Rose family (Rosaceae). It is native to China, Japan, and Vietnam. In Alabama it can be found statewide. Callery Pear can be found along fence rows, in vacant lots, in pastures, in prairies, along roads and railroads, and in disturbed woodlands. It is a small tree reaching heights of 20-60 feet. The bark is reddish brown when young and grayish and fissuring with age. Buds are densely hairy. Wild plants are often armed with stout thorn-tipped side shoots. Leaves are petiolate, alternate, ovate to oblong in outline, glabrous, with serrate margins. The leaves turn red, gold, orange, or yellow before falling in the autumn. Flowers are produced in umbel-like 4-9 flowered racemes or corymbs before the leaves. Each flower has 5 white petals and 2-3 styles. The fruit is a globose brown pome with light colored spots on its surface. The fruit is 10-15 mm in diameter. Callery Pear, especially the cultivar “Bradford”, has been widely planted as an ornamental. It is fast growing and adapts to poor, dry soils of urban environments. Some cultivars have the tendency to split with age. Callery Pear is listed as a Category 2 invasive species by the Alabama Invasive Plant Council. Common Pear (Pyrus communis Linnaeus) sometimes persists around old home sites. It has 3-5 styles and larger, usually green fruit without light colored spots. Some escaped individuals resembling the Bradford pear but with larger fruit appear to be of hybrid origin.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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