Wednesday Street Tree #15
Sand pear
Sand pear trees are rare. I have only ever seen them growing on a few north London streets. The fruits though are less rare, they are also known as Nashi pears, and while they are less frequent in supermarket aisles these days, a few years back they were a very fashionable fruit.
As a street tree, this is a species with an obvious drawback: those large squishy fruits which can cause messy pavements and attract all sorts of unfussy diners. There were a dozen crows pecking away at the fallen fruit when I visited this tree, and at night, furrier creatures will be drawn to the sweet mush. I have heard many people extol the virtues of growing fruit trees on streets, but the evidence of this tree, and others I have seen, is that few people actually harvest the fruits. Admittedly, sand pears are an unlikely delicacy, many people may wonder what they are and harvesting them poses a few challenges too, you would require at least a ladder, and perhaps a mechanical cherry picker. Would apples or plums be any different I wonder?
In the spring, sand pears have lovely white blossom, the finest of any of the pears you might encounter on London streets (the others are Beech Hill pears which produce abundant, but much smaller fruit, and the very frequent Chanticleer pear – more of these in future posts, I’m sure). On balance, I like sand pears, they add to the great diversity of our street tree population, and they are so infrequent, it’s a wonderful surprise to encounter one and work out just what the hell it is.
What is it?
Sand pear
Pyrus pyrifolia
Where is it?
Eburne Road, London N7 6AR
///tinsel.tower.memory | 51.559603, -0.119429
Still time for Christmas gifts!
Can I suggest that the tree lover in your life may not yet have the third, 2024 edition of London’s Street Trees. If not, then a signed copy might be just the thing they would like!
And if you’re looking for something bigger and bolder, why not treat yourself or a loved one to one of my limited edition photographic prints?
TST Long Reads – What did you think?
In case you missed it, I sent out the first in what I hope will be an occasional series of TST Long Reads, articles from guest contributors broadly covering nature or environmental topics. The first one was Yellowing With Age by Professor John Tregoning. I’d love to know what you thought, so here’s a snazzy Substack poll for you. I’m not quite sure how these work, but if you’re reading this as an email, you may need to visit the website to take part.
Yes! We have one of these nearby. Our neighbor has it planted in the parking strip. It's very prolific even though there's no other pear trees nearby. The pears fall all over the street and sidewalk in the late summer. We call it the bombardier Pear.
I’ve not come across sand pears, one to look out for. Thanks.
I answered the third poll as more than once a month because I was thinking it could become too demanding to find a writer and take such effort it becomes a chore and detracts from the primary street tree function, which is itself a big enough task!