Callery pear

Heavy fruit infections by the Cedar-Quince Rust fungus (Gymnosporangium clavipes) are occurring on Callery pears (Pyrus calleryana, family Rosaceae) in southwest Ohio. The “rust” in the common name refers to the rust-colored spores.

Flowering Pear Trees were put on the “Do not Sell”, Invasive Species List for the Ohio Department of Agriculture last January of 2023. The problem is the fruit!

During a recent Sunday drive, my wife and I came across a dramatic display of the fruitful connection between European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris, family Sturnidae) and Callery Pears (Pyrus calleryana, family Rosaceae). The lead image needs no label.

Why was Flowering Pear added to the invasive species list making it illegal to sell as of January 7th, 2023. The proof is in the flowers. Now’s the time to spot it in Northern Ohio.

Enjoy some suggestions for flowering trees that could substitute for Callery Pear.

Last year, I vowed not to take any more pictures of blooming Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana). I have hundreds of pictures including some that I've labeled "Field of Pears." It's a 13.5-acre former farm field along I-75 just north of the exit for SR 129. The field is covered with escaped pears; no trees had ever been planted there. I've been taking shots of the field since 2010.

“Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud, All plants make faults.”

  While walking in German Village in Columbus with ONLA’s Frits Risor last week we revisited the Callery pears with rust disease noted earlier this season (http://bygl.osu.edu/node/342). I wanted to see if the rust was isolated to the two trees heavily affected in June. As earlier, the two trees in question were speckled with bright orange lesions on the upper leaf surfaces, but I suspected that by now the rust fungus would have undergone sexual reproduction in the leaves with aecial spore pustules developing  on the lower leaf surfaces as would be seen with the cedar-apple rust fungus (...

Fireblight on Callery pear is highlighted against the blue sky in Columbus’s German Village this past Thursday in the lead photo of this byglalert, with a different look in the second photo taken with a different sun angle, important to remember when seeing images and thinking “it doesn’t look quite like what I saw”. Fireblight symptoms of “shepherd’s crook” shoots and discolored leaves are common to see now, following infections which occurred weeks, even months earlier in cool, warm weather during bloom. 

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