Pyrus calleryana
Callery Pear at Mount Mugga Mugga
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| Pyrus calleryana | Tapirlord | 14 May 2024 | |
| Pyrus sp. | Mike | 13 May 2024 |
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User's notes
No spines.
10 comments
14 May 2024
I recorded this to show the terminal buds, different from the spines on https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/4571071. I thought this helped distinguishing between Manchurian pear and Callery pear, but perhaps it is just different cultivars. Forest 87 at the National Arboretum Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer' does not have spines (not that I looked closely).
21 Mar 2025
Hi
Same questions for this sapling too.
Do you think this was planted deliberately, or sown by seed dispersal or grown from a sucker?
What environment was it in?
Was it suckering?
It looks larger than the others...did it have fruit?
Thanks,
Kate
Same questions for this sapling too.
Do you think this was planted deliberately, or sown by seed dispersal or grown from a sucker?
What environment was it in?
Was it suckering?
It looks larger than the others...did it have fruit?
Thanks,
Kate
30 Oct 2025
Mike, the lack of spines may mean this is Manchurian. @MichaelMulvaney says if he sees spines it is Callery, and if no spines he says it is Manchurian. I assume he means on seed grown saplings because as you say the planted cultivars - at the Arboretum, street trees, don't have spines.
Don't know what criteria @tapirlord uses.
Don't know what criteria @tapirlord uses.
30 Oct 2025
Even for seed grown saplings, I don't think lack of spines is definitive proof that the sapling pear is not Callery. After all the US breeders of thornless varieties selected them from populations derived from thorny parents.
30 Oct 2025
There are many varieties planted in Australia. Manchurian pear (Pyrus ussuriensis) and Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) can interbreed. They are closely related species within the Pyrus genus and are capable of cross-pollination, especially when planted near each other. (Copilot AI)
31 Oct 2025
Citation: Bell, R.L., Itai, A. 2011. Pyrus. In: Kole, C., editor. Wild Crop Relatives: Genomic and Breeding Resources. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag. p. 147-177.
May be what Copilot AI found.
Quote "There are at least 26 widely recognized primary species and 10 naturally occurring interspecific hybrid taxa, which are distributed in Europe, temperate Asia and mountainous areas of northern Africa. All species of Pyrus are intercrossable, and there are no major incompatibility barriers to interspecific hybridization."
Manchurian and Callery seem to come from different geographic regions in east Asia, so there are no natural hybrids between them listed. But the possibility they could occur certainly exists in Canberra.
May be what Copilot AI found.
Quote "There are at least 26 widely recognized primary species and 10 naturally occurring interspecific hybrid taxa, which are distributed in Europe, temperate Asia and mountainous areas of northern Africa. All species of Pyrus are intercrossable, and there are no major incompatibility barriers to interspecific hybridization."
Manchurian and Callery seem to come from different geographic regions in east Asia, so there are no natural hybrids between them listed. But the possibility they could occur certainly exists in Canberra.
31 Oct 2025
They are probably just like wattles from different areas. Canberra has plenty of acacia hybrids.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.121732-35.350320
- Altitude 714.4m
- Maps Mount Mugga Mugga
- Places O'Malley, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 13 May 2024 03:26 PM Recorded on
- Mike Recorded by
- No Planted
- No In flower
Collections
Species information
- Pyrus calleryana Scientific name
- Callery Pear Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Exotic
- Medium weed or pest
- Up to 747.12m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Seasonal activity
-
In flower
JFMAMJJASOND
Record quality
Quality score
7 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes