Pyrus sicanorum
Pyrus sicanorum, the Pero dei Monti Sicano, is a species of pear in the rose family Rosaceae, that is native to central western Sicily. It is, together with P. ciancioi, P. pedrottiana, P. vallis-demonis and P. castribonensis, one of five pear species endemic to the island, and was described in 2006.
Taxonomy
The species was described by a team of Palermo University botanists around as part of an effort to systematise the rosaceous trees on the island which also led to the description of the whitebeams Aria madoniensis, A. busambarensis, A. meridionalis and A. phitosiana, the wild apple Malus crescimannoi, and the abovementioned four other species of pear. The species is named after the Sicani Mountains, the species' locus classicus. Of the pear species found growing wild in Sicily, P. sicanorum appears to be most closely related to the common pear, and its origin seems to be linked to cultivation. It is classified in subgenus Pyrus.
Description
Pyrus sicanorum is a medium-sized deciduous species of tree with an erect and slender habit and ascending, spiny branches. The leaves are lanceolate and shiny, with a leaf length to width of ratio between 1.5 and 2.8. The white, insect-pollinated flowers appear in corymbs of 5-7 from the end of March to mid-April. The fruits are large, at 3.5-6 × 4-5.6 cm, green-yellowish and sometimes reddish on one side.
Distribution and ecology
Pyrus sicanorum occurs in the Sicani Mountains of central-western Sicily, where it has been identified between Filaga and Prizzi, near Monte delle Rose and in the Rifesi Woods, close to Palazzo Adriano and Burgio. The species grows in shrublands and mesophilic downy oak woodland margins on carbonate bedrock between 750 and 1300 m.a.s. together with wild asparagus, common hawthorn, Albanian spurge, Etruscan honeysuckle, coral peony, blackthorn, dog rose, evergreen rose, wild madder, elmleaf blackberry, butcher's broom, common bindweed, milkwort and bellevalia.