Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Plymouth pear

(Pyrus boissieriana)

galery
en

Description

Pyrus cordata, the Plymouth pear, is a rare wild species of pear belonging to the family Rosaceae. It gets its name from the city of Plymouth in Devon, where it was originally found in 1870 The Plymouth pear was one of the British trees to be funded under English Natures Species Recovery Programme. It is a small tree, that grows in hedgerows or at the edge of woods. The Plymouth pear is considered to be either a sub-species of Pyrus pyraster (European Wild Pear) or a distinct species. It is one of the rarest trees in the UK and it is protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and seeds have been deposited at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank. Pyrus cordata is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing up to 10 metres in height. It is hardy and is not frost tender, but its ability to bear fruit and thus seed is dependent upon favourable weather conditions. It is in flower from April to May. The flowers are hermaphrodite and are pollinated by Insects. The trees have pale cream blossom with some pink. The smell of the blossom has however been described as a faint but disgusting smell compared to rotting scampi, soiled sheets or wet carpets. The odour attracts mainly flies including some more often drawn to decaying plant matter such as Bibio marci. It is common in Brittany, Northern Portugal and Galicia where it occurs at woodland margins on acid soils. The Plymouth pear has an Atlantic distribution and is found in Western Europe in France (notably in Brittany), Spain (notably in Galicia), Portugal and with a small presence in the United Kingdom (in Devon and Cornwall) where it is now believed to be an archaeophyte. It occurs in thickets and open woods with cool-temperate climates, in lowlands and hills. Not much about its requirements in the UK are known, but conservationists are looking at how it behaves in Brittany to get an idea about its requirements. The species receives its English name from the area it was originally found growing in; Plymouth in 1871 by a local naturalist; T. R. Archer Briggs. In the United Kingdom the species is very rare and is confined to two areas – Plymouth and Truro. The genetic diversity of the species in the UK is very low with the two widely scattered populations being genetically identical which suggests that one of the populations was established from clone material taken from the other (suckers or cuttings).

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Rosales
Family:Rosaceae
Genus:Pyrus
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