Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus Pyrus, in the family Rosaceae, bearing the pomaceous fruit of the same name. Several species of pears are valued for their edible fruit and juices, while others are cultivated as trees.
Pyrus pyrifolia is a species of pear tree native to East Asia. The tree's edible fruit is known by many names, including: Asian pear, Japanese pear, Chinese pear, Korean pear, Taiwanese pear, apple pear, zodiac pear, three-halves pear, papple, naspati and sand pear. Along with cultivars of P. × bretschneideri and P. ussuriensis, the fruit is also called the nashi pear. Cultivars derived from Pyrus pyrifolia are grown throughout East Asia, and in other countries such as India, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Traditionally in East Asia the tree's flowers are a popular symbol of early spring, and it is a common sight in gardens and the countryside.
Pyrus × bretschneideri, the ya pear or pearple or Chinese white pear, is an interspecific hybrid species of pear native to North China, where it is widely grown for its edible fruit.
Pyrus calleryana, or the Callery pear, is a species of pear tree native to China and Vietnam, in the family Rosaceae. It is most commonly known for its cultivar 'Bradford', widely planted throughout the United States and increasingly regarded as an invasive species.
Pyrus communis, the common pear, is a species of pear native to central and eastern Europe, and western Asia.
Pyrus salicifolia is a species of pear, native to the Middle East. It is widely grown as an ornamental tree, almost always as a pendulous cultivar, and is called by various common names, including willow-leaved pear, weeping pear, and similar. The tree is deciduous and of comparatively small stature, rarely reaching 10–12 meters in height. The crown is rounded. It has pendulous, silvery foliage, superficially similar to a weeping willow. The flowers are large and pure white highlighted with black-tipped stamens although the buds are tipped with red. The small green fruits are inedible, being hard and astringent.
The Zagros Mountains forest steppe is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in Western Asia. The ecoregion extends along the Zagros Mountains, stretching from eastern Turkey and northern Iraq to southern Iran.
Psylla pyri, commonly known as the pear psylla or pear psyllid, is a true bug in the family Psyllidae. Originating in Europe and Asia, it has spread to North America. It is a pest of pear trees, sucking the sap, damaging the foliage, flowers and fruit and diminishing the crop.
Malus prunifolia is a species of crabapple tree known by the common names plumleaf crab apple, plum-leaved apple, pear-leaf crabapple, Chinese apple and Chinese crabapple. It is native to China, and is grown elsewhere for use as an ornamental tree or as rootstock. It reaches from between 3 and 8 meters tall and bears white flowers and yellow or red fruit.
Pyrus pyraster, also called European wild pear, is a species of pear of the family Rosaceae.
Pyrus boissieriana, the Boissier pear and telka, is a species of Pyrus (pear) native to the Kopet Dag region on the Turkmenistan and Iranian border. In its native locales it is cultivated as a rootstock for domestic pears.
Pyrus pashia, the wild Himalayan pear, is a small to medium size deciduous tree of the small and oval shaped crown with ovate, finely toothed leaves, attractive white flowers with red anthers and small pear-like fruits. It is a fruit bearing tree that is native to southern Asia. Locally, it is known by many names such as batangi (Urdu), tangi (Kashmiri), mahal mol (Hindi) and passi (Nepal).
Pyrus bourgaeana, the Iberian pear, is a close relative of Pyrus communis L. The latter was domesticated about 2500 years ago. This monoecious small tree is widely distributed across the southern Iberian Peninsula and northern Morocco, where it coexists with four Pyrus species: P. communis L., P. cordata Dew., P. spinosa Forssk, and P. nivalis Jacq. Characteristics to discriminate these species are the width of fruit peduncle, petal size, leaf width and petiole length served to the taxa.
Pyrus cordata, the Plymouth pear, is a rare wild species of pear belonging to the family Rosaceae. It gets its name from the city of Plymouth in Devon, where it was originally found in 1870 The Plymouth pear was one of the British trees to be funded under English Natures Species Recovery Programme.
Pyrus syriaca is a deciduous tree in the Rosaceae family. It is referred to by the common name Syrian pear. It is the only pear species which grows in the wild in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Israel.
Pyrus ussuriensis, also known as the Ussurian pear, Harbin pear, and Manchurian pear, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.
Pyrus austriaca, the Austrian pear, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Pyrus found in central and southern Europe, and Turkey. They are very large trees for pears, reaching 20 m. It is thought to be a hybrid species of Pyrus pyraster and Pyrus nivalis.
Pyrus phaeocarpa, the dusky pear or orange pear, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to the Loess Plateau of northern China. A wide tree reaching at most 7–8 m (23–26 ft) in height, it is hardy to USDA zone 5, or perhaps even zone 4. Its small yellow to brown fruit are edible, and its Autumn foliage is bright orange to orange-red, giving it good potential as an ornamental. Its chloroplast genome shows that it is closely related to Pyrus pashia, the wild Himalayan pear, and it is suspected to be a hybrid of P. betulifolia, the birchleaf pear, P. pyrifolia, the apple pear, and P. ussuriensis, the Manchurian pear.
Pyrus regelii is a species of wild pear in the family Rosaceae, native to Central Asia. A small tree usually 6 m (20 ft) tall, but reaching 9 m (30 ft), its young branches are cloaked in a grey down, which provides visual interest when it is planted as an ornamental. Its leaves, which are also downy when young, are exceptionally variable in shape, sometimes even on the same individual. The fruit are small but typical pears, and are collected and eaten by local peoples. The most xerophytic member of its genus, it is occasionally used as a rootstock for cultivated pear trees, as a garden ornamental, and for reforestation projects, all in dry areas.
