Callery pear
Pyrus calleryana
Its beautiful spring blossoms are notorious for producing an unpleasant odor, often compared to rotting fish, to attract fly pollinators.
- Scientific name
- Pyrus calleryana
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Rosales › Rosaceae › Pyrus
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- urban
- Habitat
- Urban landscapes, abandoned fields, forest edges, and disturbed roadsides.
- Diet
- Water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight (photosynthesis).
- Range
- North America, China, Vietnam, Japan
- Size
- 10-15 meters (30-50 feet) tall
- Lifespan
- 15-25 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Target of eradication efforts due to its highly invasive nature; susceptible to structural collapse from ice and wind storms.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to touch, but exercise caution around mature trees during storms, as their brittle wood is prone to sudden splitting. Wild-growing escapees may possess sharp, woody thorns.
Pyrus calleryana , the Callery pear , is a species of pear native to China and Vietnam, in the family Rosaceae. It is a deciduous tree growing to 5 to 8 m (16 to 26 ft) tall, often with a conic to rounded crown. The leaves are oval, 4 to 8 cm (1.6 to 3.1 in) long, glossy dark green above, and slightly paler below. The white, five-petaled flowers are about 2 to 2.5 cm (0.79 to 0.98 in) in diameter. They are produced...
Photo: Benjamin Smith, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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