{"slug":"pyrus-calleryana","scientific_name":"Pyrus calleryana","common_names":["Callery pear","Bradford pear","Ornamental pear"],"family":"Rosaceae","type":"broadleaf_deciduous","mature_height_m":12,"mature_spread_m":8,"growth_rate":"fast","lifespan_years":null,"hardiness_zones":[5,9],"sun":"full","water":"medium","soil":"Clay, loam or sand; acid to alkaline; moist to occasionally dry","native_range":"China and Vietnam; introduced to the US as an ornamental and now naturalized in at least 26 states","description":"The ubiquitous white-flowering street tree of the 1980s and 1990s (30-50 feet), pyramidal with glossy leaves that turn purple-red in fall. Its flowers smell of rotting fish, its tight branch crotches split apart in wind and ice after 15-20 years, and the once-sterile Bradford now cross-pollinates with other cultivars to produce thorny wild seedlings that form dense thickets along roadsides and fields, including throughout Texas.","care":"Not recommended for new planting; several states have banned its sale. If you have one, expect limb failure and fire blight and plan a replacement. Remove wild seedlings (which carry thorns) by cutting and treating stumps, since cut trees resprout. Native alternatives with spring bloom include Mexican plum, Texas redbud and rusty blackhaw viburnum.","benefits":["flowers","fall_color"],"uses":[],"cautions":["invasive_elsewhere","weak_wood","thorns","short_lived","pest_prone"],"image_url":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Pyrus_calleryana.JPG","image_credit":"Bruce Marlin, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","sources":["https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/PYCA80","https://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=PYCA80","https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pyrus-calleryana/"],"data_note":null,"updated_at":"2026-11-08T01:00:46.205Z","page_url":"https://treerm.org/trees/pyrus-calleryana","markdown_url":"https://treerm.org/trees/pyrus-calleryana.md","regions":[{"country":"CN","region":null,"locality":null,"status":"native","note":"Native to China and Vietnam","source_url":null},{"country":"AU","region":"NSW","locality":"Sydney","status":"recommended","note":"On the City of Sydney Street Tree Master Plan 2023 precinct planting palette","source_url":"https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/-/media/corporate/files/publications/strategies-action-plans/street-tree-master-plan/precinct-summaries-2023.pdf"},{"country":"US","region":"CA","locality":"Los Angeles","status":"recommended","note":"On the City Plants (Los Angeles) Street Tree Species List","source_url":"https://www.cityplants.org/street-tree-species-list/"},{"country":"US","region":null,"locality":null,"status":"invasive","note":"Texas Invasives reports it present in 26 states and DC","source_url":"https://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=PYCA80"},{"country":"US","region":"NC","locality":null,"status":"invasive","note":"Listed as invasive by the NC Invasive Plant Council (per NC State Extension Plant Toolbox)","source_url":"https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pyrus-calleryana/"},{"country":"US","region":"TX","locality":null,"status":"invasive","note":"Listed in the Texas Invasives (texasinvasives.org) plant database. Widely planted, so found throughout the state; forms dense thickets once established. Not on the TDA noxious list.","source_url":"https://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=PYCA80"}],"license":"CC-BY-4.0"}