Identification Help - Crabapple or Bradford Pear?

[FreshAirSunshine]

I’m looking into possible collection of a tree this spring but haven’t been able to pin down the identity. It’s certainly late fruiting and flowering, the fruit has a core rather than a pit, but beyond that I’d like help.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Seems to me the white markings on the younger branches suggest Bradford. Not sure if that happens with crabapples.

 

[penumbra]

Fruit tells me crab but trunk and abundant thorns and spurs tell me pear. If it is a pear, it is not Bradford, it is a Callery Pear. Bradford is a named variety of Callery. They have become a nuisance tree due to their proliferation.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Yeah right. Bradford to my understanding was intended as the non fertile version and it reverted to Callery through unfortunate crossing with local pears. I’ve been having the same issue as you described with identification.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

I’ll also add this fruit is much smaller than similar fruit on neighboring trees but has the same structure, color, and core. The trunk I believe is all gnarly through repeated eating by rabbits which may have dwarfed it. Issue is I know the location to have both Apple and pear trees.

 

[Kanorin]

Well, whether it is a malus or a pyrus - I think it would make a nice bonsai! I say collect it.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Theres a bit of a back and forth on whether I can collect or not - if it’s a pear I’m free to but if not it’s still in the air. Worst case we’d have to wait for blooms to tell which would mean collecting after blooming. I’d prefer collecting before buds swell but that’d require early identification which was my reason to ask. I agree though it’s worth collecting either way if I can!

 

[LittleDingus]

Theres a bit of a back and forth on whether I can collect or not - if it’s a pear I’m free to but if not it’s still in the air. Worst case we’d have to wait for blooms to tell which would mean collecting after blooming. I’d prefer collecting before buds swell but that’d require early identification which was my reason to ask. I agree though it’s worth collecting either way if I can!

Seems to me that if the only way you can collect it for sure is if it is a pear: it's a pear!

I mean, if you're getting opinions from the internet it may as well be

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Haha! Yeah just seeing if I’m missing an identifying property since I can’t distinguish well enough myself.

 

[Shibui]

Everything looks right for a callery pear. Around here they have tiny brown fruits around 1/4 - 1/2 inch diameter.
Leaves and flowers will clinch the ID but I guess you'd rather get an ID before this one shoots in spring.

 

[KillerButts]

Branford’s do nothing for 5’ then cluster vertically. You only see small horizontal branching roughy 14’ and higher.

 

[MMJNICE]

I'm 80% sure that a that's a callery pear

Everything looks right for a callery pear. Around here they have tiny brown fruits around 1/4 - 1/2 inch diameter.
Leaves and flowers will clinch the ID but I guess you'd rather get an ID before this one shoots in spring.

Agree

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Thanks for all the responses! Yeah like many others I’m convinced this is a callery pear so I’ll be planning to collect. It’ll be up to the landowner whether I do so before bud swell or after bloom depending on their confidence with the identification but I don’t think there’s really anything else I can give to help with that. Looks like it’s 80-90% chance of callery but to hit 95%+ would need bud break.

 

[jradics]

callery pear is an invasive monster in the Atlanta area. The empty lot next to me is over run with them. I just chainsawed 50 from thumb to 6in caliper last week

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Yeah I know - although most recent identification has me leaning crab. There are neighboring callery pears with the fuzzy buds but the tree in question doesn’t have that.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Identified as a crabapple. Collected a couple weeks ago. Right now seeing how it’ll recover. If it does I’ll think about whether a development thread would be fun to do. Would at least make me document things

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

We’ll see but I remember the fruit of this tree last fall being 1/3-1/4 the size of another crabapple right next to it. I suspected it may be dwarfed from all the rabbit gnawing of the trunk. Interested to see how large the leaves are once they’re all fully developed.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]