Ornamental Pear, Bradford Pear

Pyrus calleryana

Rosaceae (Rose Family)

▲ mature cultivated plants, showing characteristic pyramidal shape

▲▼ flowering plants in spring

▲ fall color of ornamental planting

▲ flower buds (tan, fuzzy) and leaves

▲▼ fruit (about 1/2 inch diameter)

wild seedlings invading an open field ▲▼

▲▼ thorns on root sprout trees

stout, thorn-like spurs on wild plants and rootstock sprouts (▲ above 3 photos)

▲ flowering wild seedlings along a highway

▲ rootsprouts from cut tree-- has thorns (shown on fence rail above)

▲▼ red fall color on trees along highway (above) and edge of pasture (below) in southwest Missouri

▼ (below 3) Ornamental Pears didn't fare well after January 2007 ice storm in Springfield, MO

Ornamental Pear:  (not in Weeds of the Great Plains, nor Weeds of the Northeast)

·         Medium-sized tree, often branched near the base, with glossy, heart-shaped leaves and clusters of white, fragrant (some think not good-smelling) flowers in spring, followed by small (1/2” diameter) brown, rough-textured fruit

·         Can only produce fruit if two different cultivars are grown within pollination distance of each other

·         Commonly planted as an ornamental, but tends to experience branch splitting after 15-20 years of age, in windstorms or ice storms (often destroys above-ground portion of tree)

·         Root sprouts (after top damage) or seedlings often have stout thorns

·         Becoming invasive in central U.S.; can germinate in dense vegetation (pastures, roadsides, prairies, savannahs, fallow fields) and can flower within 5 years of germination;  is not easily killed by fire or herbicides once stem is 1 inch diameter