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Forestry
Champion Trees
Common Pear Tree -
(Pyrus communis L.)
The common pear tree (Pyrus communis L.) has been
reported in 18 counties of Arkansas, but you can “bet your boots” that it can be
found statewide. The genus name Pyrus is the ancient classical name; the
species name communis means common. A member of the Rose Family
Rosaceae, the ancestors of this European native probably arrived in the
United states ca. 1600 A.D. The pear has been grown in America since the
earliest colonists arrived. In 1630, John Endecott (or Endicott) of
Massachusetts is supposed to have planted the Endicott pear, which is
famous in the history of horticulture. Most pears grown in colonial America came
from France, then the center of European pear growing. One of the world’s
largest pear trees once grew in the Mississippi Valley, in the vicinity of the
French settlement of Cahokia (the famous Cahokia Indian step-mound near east St.
Louis).
Generally pyramidal and upright, the common pear tree can
live to a ripe old age, capable of reaching a height of 75 feet. This Monroe
county champ is thought to be 75 to 100 years old and was exhibiting symptoms of
"Fire Blight", a bacterial disease common to these trees. Flowering from
March-May, with or before the leaves on simple, terminal cymes (see inset) borne
on short twigs from the preceding year, the corollas may be white or pink. The
fruit, a pear shaped pome from 3 to 5 inches long, bearing yellow to reddish
flesh abundant with grit cells. The simple, alternately arranged leaves are
deciduous and usually appear on short lateral spurs. The common pear sometimes
escapes cultivation in some areas of the southwest and elsewhere in North
America. It is often cultivated commercially in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and
Louisiana. I wonder if there was once a fellow called "Johnny Pearseed"?
Laden with fruit, this ancient Monroe county pear tree
stands in the lot of an old home place, forty yards from the carcass of the
former Arkansas Champion Black Walnut tree. Toppled by 70 mph straight line
winds in June, 1999, this Black Walnut was forced to relinquish it’s grand
title. Jim Grant, Arkansas Forestry Commission’s Information and Education
Officer, was invited to inspect the remains of the former champ and to
measure this huge pear tree that shared this common fertile ground.
Discovered and nominated as a state champ by retired Monroe County Cooperative
Extension Service Agriculture Agent Reggie Talley, this remarkable specimen
has a Bigness Index (BI) of 146. It’s circumference is 8 feet, 3 inches (99
inches), stands 39 feet in height, and exhibits a crown spread of 32 feet.
The National Register of Big Trees - 2000 has
the National Champion pear tree located in Waitsburg, Washington with a
Bigness Index (BI) of 247. It has a circumference of 14 feet and 6 inches
(174 inches), stands 59 feet tall, and exhibits a crown spread of 56 feet.
Wow !
By: Reggie Talley
Retired Monroe County Extension Agent
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