Most pear trees in home yards fall into one of three groups: European pears, Asian pears and ornamental Callery pears such as Bradford. They look similar in leaf and bloom, but the fruit, the timing and a few details on the branches give them away. Knowing which you have tells you when to harvest, what problems to watch for and, in the case of Callery pear, whether to keep it at all.

Table of Contents

The short answer: the fastest clue is the fruit. Classic pear-shaped, soft fruit is a European pear. Round, apple-shaped, crisp fruit is an Asian pear. Tiny, hard, marble-sized fruit under half an inch is a Callery pear such as Bradford. If you have no fruit, look for a very symmetrical oval tree with foul-smelling white blossoms in early spring (Callery) or long thorns on a wild-looking tree (wild Callery).

Pear identification chart

Feature	European pear	Asian pear	Callery (Bradford) pear
Fruit shape	Classic pear shape, narrow at the stem	Round, like an apple	Round, under 1/2 inch
Fruit texture	Buttery and soft when ripe	Crisp and juicy	Hard, not grown for eating
Fruit color	Green to yellow or red	Yellow, golden or russet brown	Green turning brown, with pale dots
Ripening	Picked firm, ripened indoors	Ripened on the tree	Fruit stays on the tree into winter, eaten by birds
Typical form	Upright, irregular	Upright, often kept smaller	Dense, symmetrical oval or pyramid
Flowers	White, in spring	White, often early	White, very early, unpleasant smell
Thorns	Usually none on cultivated trees	Usually none	Wild offspring have thorns up to 4 inches
Fall color	Yellow to dull red	Yellow to orange-red	Bright red to purple, late

European pears

European pears (Pyrus communis) are the pears of grocery stores: Bartlett, Bosc, Anjou, Seckel and many others. Iowa State University Extension notes that European pears should not ripen on the tree, because they become gritty and lose flavor. They are picked when the skin shifts from deep green toward yellow-green and the small spots on the skin turn from white to brown, while the fruit is still firm. They then ripen at room temperature over 7 to 10 days.

If your tree produces classic teardrop-shaped fruit that softens indoors after picking, you almost certainly have a European pear.

Asian pears

Asian pears, sometimes called apple pears, have round fruit with a crisp, juicy texture. Common cultivars include Chojuro, Hosui and Shinseiki. Unlike European pears, Iowa State notes that Asian pears should ripen fully on the tree, usually as the skin turns from green to yellow or golden brown, and the best test is taste.

Clemson Extension notes that mature Asian pear trees can reach more than 20 feet tall and are usually planted 10 to 15 feet apart. Some are russeted, with a rough brown skin, and others are smooth and yellow.

Callery pear: Bradford and relatives

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) is an Asian ornamental species. Bradford is the best known cultivar, but Chanticleer, Cleveland Select, Autumn Blaze and Aristocrat are also common. NC State Extension describes the features to look for:

A dense, symmetrical oval to pyramidal shape in planted trees.
Masses of white flowers in early spring, often before most other trees, with an odor often compared to rotting fish.
Glossy, oval leaves with finely toothed edges and red to purple fall color.
Small, hard fruit that birds eat and spread.

The University of Maryland Extension and NC State both warn that Callery pears have weak branch unions that break in storms, and that their offspring are invasive. Wild Callery pears have an irregular shape, often multiple trunks and thorns up to 4 inches long, and form dense thickets along roadsides and field edges. Several states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Kansas, have banned their sale.

Other trees often mistaken for pears

In early spring, several other trees bloom white at about the same time. NC State lists serviceberry, wild plums, crabapples, black cherry and flowering dogwood as common look-alikes. Crabapple fruit has a stem attached at a dimple and the flowers are often pink in bud. Serviceberry has small, berry-like fruit in early summer. Flowering dogwood has four large white bracts instead of five-petaled flowers.

Still not sure?

Take photos of the whole tree, the bark, a leaf and the fruit, if any.
Note when it blooms and whether the flowers smell.
Bring a sample with fruit and leaves to your county extension office or a local nursery.

Knowing which you have helps you plan. A fruiting European pear needs fire blight watch and fruit thinning; an Asian pear needs harvest on the tree; a Callery pear may be best replaced with a native tree like serviceberry or eastern redbud.

For care problems, see why pear leaves turn brown and how to treat pear tree fire blight.

Sources

Harvesting and Storing Tree Fruit, Iowa State University Extension
Asian Pear, Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC
Callery Pear: Bradford Pear, Other Varieties, and Their Invasive Offspring, NC State Extension
Callery (Bradford) Pear, University of Maryland Extension

Top photo: Randy Everette, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Kind of Pear Tree Do I Have? A Simple ID Chart