Thought you would enjoy these videos about wild pears I know I enjoy them.
Interesting concept eating wild pear flowers
Some wild pear like callery humans are trying to use for food at times. I’ve eaten them before after a freeze they taste a bit like applesauce.
Hard to believe pears as we know them came so far but they did.
Do any of you have wild pear trees?
Those with edible fruits?
I’m looking for varieties like this.
I went to check on a drainage ditch above our orchard (and house) and realised that this ~10year old pyraster next to our property (green line of shrubbery on the left) is finally fruiting.
I found some interesting wild pears in a Mennonite community yesterday. This post contains photos of the largest one. It’s currently growing in a stand of wild volunteers and may itself be a wild volunteer, judging from its size relative to the trees on either side of it (see photo below).
What I found really interesting about this tree was its growth habit: one central leader with branches coming off of it at almost 90 degree angles, as can be seen above.
The only problem this tree seemed to have was the borers that attacked its trunk at some point. Otherwise, I saw no signs of blight on the leaves and only a tiny scab spot on one of the fruits I collected.
Closeup of the leaves (above)
I collected and processed about 30 fruits. The most common issue with them was physical damage sustained during the fall from the tree. Otherwise, I found a very small scab spot on one fruit and a worm in another fruit. That’s it!
The fruits were all about 2” in diameter, round, and russet.
Some of the fruits had what looked like underdeveloped cores, as can be seen in the horizontal cross-section above.
Vertical cross-section (above). Most of the seeds in these pears were underdeveloped and/or shriveled. Out of about 30 pears, I harvested only 24 healthy-looking seeds.
The fruits were either green or yellow beneath the russet layer, which was pretty easy to scratch off.
About 30% of the crop was still attached to the tree.The pears I collected had all fallen off the tree, and I don’t know how long they had sat on the ground before I came along, so they may have had some time to blet. That being said, they were all very firm, juicy, and tasted like apple cider to me. Probably not as sweet as apple cider, and a bit more intense-tasting. I liked them, and I ate 2 in the car on the way home. The only drawback that for me relegates these pears to the juice/cider/rootstock category is the large amount of grit in them.
I would like to get scion from that old tree to grow. I understand to most people the value may not be apparent , but I feel its nostalgic like an old Victorian house, petina on old furniture. It is beautiful in a way pear collectors can see like you and I.
I’ll send you some! I already have plans to revisit the tree for scion in the winter, and I’d like to preserve it in case it succumbs to those borers.
Here are two younger pear trees I was shown during my visit to the Mennonite community. The family who owns this land discovered them while clearing the land for an orchard. The landowners say these trees were tiny in the spring but really took off once the trees shading them were removed. I agree with them that these are two different trees, not a single suckering tree. The growth habit, bark, and fruits of each tree are distinct.
The photo above has the tall, straight tree with light gray bark in the foreground. The family said that this tree makes round, russet fruit. It had all fallen off the tree by the time of my visit.
The photo above this text shows the shorter tree with darker bark in the foreground. There were still a couple immature pears on this one, and I took photos of one of them. All of the following photos depict this shorter/dark bark tree.
Some “false spring” flowers above. They were odorless and the owners said that they haven’t noticed any unpleasant odor from the flowers on either tree.
Side branches seem to start life as thorns on this tree. Could this suggest Pyrus pyraster ancestry?
One of those immature fruits.
I have received permission to collect scion from these trees, as well as the large one in my earlier post.
Those look like good ones to collect from. I like this type of thing.
Laura, those “borer holes” are from sapsuckers. They are small birds that punch holes in bark of trees so the tree will bleed sap they can drink. While the damage is ugly, it usually does not kill a tree, however, it is an open wound through which disease can enter the trunk.
The horizontal branches are very rare on a tree that bears large fruit. I know where 3 or 4 callery trees are growing near Birmingham Alabama that are even more horizontal branching than the tree in your picture. I’d love to see some work done to bring horizontal branching over into some commercial pears. It would be a useful trait because fruit bearing can take place throughout the canopy instead of on the outside layer of leaves.
@Fusion_power Thank you for sharing that insight! I’m so relieved to hear that the damage is more or less cosmetic! I’d be happy to send you scion also, if you like.
