Pear
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and are harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. 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.
The tree is medium-sized and native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Pear wood is one of the preferred materials in the manufacture of high-quality woodwind instruments and furniture.
About 3,000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide, which vary in both shape and taste. The fruit is consumed fresh, canned, as juice, dried, or fermented as perry.
Etymology
The word pear comes from Old English pere or peru, borrowed from Vulgar Latin pera, from Latin pirum, akin to Greek apios; ultimately from an unknown source, possibly Semitic, or a lost Mediterranean language. The adjective pyriform or piriform means pear-shaped. The classical Latin word for a pear tree is pirus; pyrus is an alternate form of this word sometimes used in medieval Latin.Description
The pear is native to coastal, temperate, and mountainous region, It is found from Western Europe and North Africa east across Asia. They are medium-sized trees, reaching up to 20 m tall, often with a tall, narrow crown; a few pear species are shrubby.The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, long, glossy green on some species, densely silvery-hairy in some others; leaf shape varies from broad oval to narrow lanceolate. Most pears are deciduous, but one or two species in Southeast Asia are evergreen. Some pears are cold-hardy, withstanding temperatures as low as in winter, but many grown for agriculture are vulnerable to cold damage. Evergreen species only tolerate temperatures down to about.
The flowers are white, rarely tinted yellow or pink, diameter, and have five petals, five sepals, and numerous stamens. Like that of the related apple, the pear fruit is a pome, in most wild species diameter, but in some cultivated forms up to long and broad. The shape varies in most species from oblate or globose, to the classic pyriform "pear shape" of the European pear with an elongated basal portion and a bulbous end.
The fruit is a pseudofruit composed of the receptacle or upper end of the flower stalk greatly dilated. Enclosed within its cellular flesh is the true fruit: 2–5 'cartilaginous' carpels, known colloquially as the "core".
Pears and apples cannot always be distinguished by the form of the fruit; some pears look very much like some apples, e.g. the nashi pear.
History
in temperate climates extends to the remotest antiquity, and evidence exists of its use as a food since prehistoric times. Many traces have been found in prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich. Pears were cultivated in China as early as 2000 BC. An article on pear tree cultivation in Spain is included in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.The word pear, or its equivalent, occurs in all the Celtic languages, while in Slavic and other dialects, differing appellations still referring to the same thing are found—a diversity and multiplicity of nomenclature, which led Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle to infer a very ancient cultivation of the tree from the shores of the Caspian to those of the Atlantic.
The pear was also cultivated by the Romans, who ate the fruits raw or cooked, just like apples. Pliny's Natural History recommended stewing them with honey and noted three dozen varieties. The Roman cookbook De re coquinaria has a recipe for a spiced, stewed-pear patina, or soufflé. Romans also introduced the fruit to Britain.
Pyrus nivalis, which has white down on the undersurface of the leaves, is chiefly used in Europe in the manufacture of perry. Other small-fruited pears, distinguished by their early ripening and globose fruit, may be referred to as P. cordata, a species found wild in southwestern Europe.
The genus is thought to have originated in present-day Western China in the foothills of the Tian Shan, a mountain range of Central Asia, and to have spread to the north and south along mountain chains, evolving into a diverse group of over 20 widely recognized primary species. The enormous number of varieties of the cultivated European pear, are likely derived from one or two wild subspecies, widely distributed throughout Europe, and sometimes forming part of the natural vegetation of the forests. Court accounts of Henry III of England record pears shipped from La Rochelle-Normande and presented to the king by the sheriffs of the City of London. The French names of pears grown in English medieval gardens suggest that their reputation, at the least, was French; a favoured variety in the accounts was named for Saint Rieul of Senlis, Bishop of Senlis in northern France.
Asian species with medium to large edible fruit include P. pyrifolia, P. ussuriensis, P. × bretschneideri, and P. × sinkiangensis. Small-fruited species, such as Pyrus calleryana, may be used as rootstocks for the cultivated forms.
Subdivision
The genus can be divided into two subgenera—Pyrus and Pashia. Subgenus Pyrus, the Occidental clade, is distributed mainly in the western portion of Eurasia and North Africa, while subgenus Pashia, the Oriental clade, is native to East Asia. The two subgenera come in contact in Xinjiang, China, and in fact P. sinkiangensis appears to have arisen from a hybridisation event between P. communis and either P. pyrifolia or P. bretschneideri, i.e. a hybridisation between a member of the Occidental clade and a member of the Oriental clade. As of December 2024, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 74 species.Species and selected hybrids
;Subgenus Pyrus- Pyrus acutiserrata
- Pyrus armeniacifolia—apricot-leaved pear
- Pyrus asiae-mediae
- Pyrus austriaca
- Pyrus × babadagensis
- Pyrus × bardoensis
- Pyrus boissieriana
- Pyrus bourgaeana—Iberian pear
- Pyrus browiczii
- Pyrus cajon
- Pyrus castribonensis
- Pyrus chosrovica
- Pyrus ciancioi—Ciancio's pear
- Pyrus communis—European pear
- * Pyrus communis subsp. communis—European pear
- * Pyrus communis subsp. caucasica
- * Pyrus communis subsp. pyraster
- Pyrus complexa
- Pyrus cordata—Plymouth pear
- Pyrus cordifolia
- Pyrus costata
- Pyrus daralagezi
- Pyrus demetrii
- Pyrus elaeagrifolia—oleaster-leaved pear
- Pyrus elata
- Pyrus eldarica
- Pyrus fedorovii
- Pyrus ferganensis
- Pyrus georgica
- Pyrus gergerana—Gergeranian pear
- Pyrus glabra
- Pyrus grossheimii
- Pyrus hajastani
- Pyrus hakkiarica
- Pyrus hyrcana
- Pyrus jacquemontiana
- Pyrus × jordanovii
- Pyrus ketzkhovelii
- Pyrus mazanderanica
- Pyrus medvedevii
- Pyrus megrica
- Pyrus × michauxii
- Pyrus neoserrulata
- Pyrus nivalis—snow pear
- Pyrus nutans
- Pyrus oxyprion
- Pyrus pedrottiana
- Pyrus raddeana
- Pyrus regelii
- Pyrus sachokiana
- Pyrus salicifolia—willow-leaved pear
- Pyrus sicanorum
- Pyrus × sinkiangensis—thought to be an interspecific hybrid between P. ×''bretschneideri and Pyrus communis
- Pyrus sogdiana
- Pyrus sosnovskyi
- Pyrus spinosa—Almond-leaved pear
- Pyrus syriaca—Syrian pear
- Pyrus tadshikistanica
- Pyrus takhtadzhianii
- Pyrus tamamschiannae
- Pyrus terpoi
- Pyrus theodorovii
- Pyrus turcomanica
- Pyrus tuskaulensis
- Pyrus vallis-demonis
- Pyrus × vavilovii
- Pyrus voronovii
- Pyrus vsevolodovii
- Pyrus yaltirikii
- Pyrus zangezura
Graft-chimaera
Together with the genus Crataegus, it forms the graft-chimaera + Pyrocrataegus.Cultivation
According to Pear Bureau Northwest, about 3,000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide. The pear is normally propagated by grafting a selected variety onto a rootstock, which may be of a pear or quince variety. Quince rootstocks produce smaller trees, which is often desirable in commercial orchards or domestic gardens. For new varieties the flowers can be cross-bred to preserve or combine desirable traits. The fruit of the pear is produced on spurs, which appear on shoots more than one year old.There are four species which are primarily grown for edible fruit production: the European pear Pyrus communis subsp. communis cultivated mainly in Europe and North America, the Chinese white pear Pyrus × bretschneideri, the Chinese pear Pyrus ussuriensis, and the Nashi pear Pyrus pyrifolia, which are grown mainly in eastern Asia. There are thousands of cultivars of these three species. A species grown in western China, P. sinkiangensis, and P. pashia, grown in southern China and south Asia, are also produced to a lesser degree.
Other species are used as rootstocks for European and Asian pears and as ornamental trees. Pear wood is close-grained and has been used as a specialized timber for fine furniture and making the blocks for woodcuts. The Manchurian or Ussurian Pear, Pyrus ussuriensis has been crossed with Pyrus communis to breed hardier pear cultivars. The Bradford pear is widespread as an ornamental tree in North America, where it has become invasive in regions. It is also used as a blight-resistant rootstock for Pyrus communis fruit orchards. The Willow-leaved pear is grown for its silvery leaves, flowers, and its "weeping" form.