The flowering pear tree is self-incompatible, which means that it cannot self-pollinate to produce a fruit. Since the flowering pear arrived in the United States, many different cultivars have been ...

Flowering pear trees are beautiful this time of year and invasive all the time. Experts suggest that you don’t plant them.

They are all cultivars of Callery pear, a small ornamental flowering tree brought to the U.S. from China in the late 1800s. And, Kimmerer said, none of them are good trees for the long term.

The flowering pear tree is a visual headline signaling the return of spring and approach of summer. But this year, it’s making another headline -- as an invasive species.

When Bradford pear was introduced as an ornamental in 1964 by the US Department of Agriculture, it was known then that this tree possessed the weakest branch structure in nature.