# Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana)

> 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.

Source: https://treerm.org/trees/pyrus-calleryana · Updated 2026-11-08 · License CC BY 4.0

## Facts

- Also called: Bradford pear, Ornamental pear
- Family: Rosaceae
- Type: Broadleaf, drops leaves
- Mature height: 12 m; spread 8 m
- Growth: Fast growing
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Light: Full sun
- Water: Moderate water
- 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

**Benefits:** Flowers, Fall color

**Watch out for:** Invasive elsewhere, Weak wood, Thorns, Short lived, Pest prone

## 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.

## Where it stands

- **Native:** China (Native to China and Vietnam)
- **Invasive:** United States (Texas Invasives reports it present in 26 states and DC); NC, United States (Listed as invasive by the NC Invasive Plant Council (per NC State Extension Plant Toolbox)); TX, United States (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.)
- **Recommended:** Sydney, NSW, Australia (On the City of Sydney Street Tree Master Plan 2023 precinct planting palette); Los Angeles, CA, United States (On the City Plants (Los Angeles) Street Tree Species List)

## 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/