Category: Cooperative Extension
Beauty and Invasion - The Double Edge Sword of Bradford Pears
April 03, 2025 Written by Sue Barton, Professor - Plant & Soil Sciences, Edited by Michele Walfred and Jackie Czachorowski. Photos by Jackie Czachorowski
But...but, they're so beautiful!!
We are on the brink of Callery pear bloom in early April. Our roadsides and abandoned fields have since exploded into a sea of white blossoms. Maybe you have them lining your driveway or around your home, and you look forward to the white show of flowers this time of year. Sure, this may look “pretty,” but if you understand the ecology and the impact these aggressive trees have on our ecosystem, you are more likely to feel anger than see the attractiveness.
Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’, the first Callery pear cultivar, has a weak branch structure with V-shaped branch angles that split after 15 to 20 years of growth.
Narrow branch angles prompted the breeding and release of many more cultivars such as ‘Cleveland Select’, ’Chanticleer’ and ‘Aristocrat’. In the past, Bradford pear was almost sterile and produced only a few fruits, but with so many newer cultivars in the landscape, they can now cross-pollinate and produce an abundance of fruit. Fruit are small and inedible but are carried by birds who drop seed in roadside ditches, easements and natural areas. Many of these invasive flowering pears have thorns and aggressively choke out native trees, like serviceberry that once bloomed along wood edges in early spring.
Do not plant Callery pears and consider removing and replacing any growing on your property with a native small flowering tree, such as Carolina silverbell, Washington hawthorn, dogwood, fringe tree, serviceberry, or redbud.
Callery pears are on the list of plants that will no longer be propagated or sold in Delaware. Look for information in your local garden center about this new law and the alternative suggestions to the 10 common invasive species still bought and sold in Delaware.
Bradford Pears are just a few of the many invasive plants that are changing the environment in which we live. Think long and hard before planting a known invasive plant in your landscape, and consider removing the ones you already have. Of course, follow the new law as of July 2022. For a list of plants on the Delaware Invasive Species List, visit the Delaware Invasive Species Council's resource web page.