Trees Taking Over

Drive down any highway or road at this time of the year and the clusters of white tree blossoms are very easy to pick out. Some of those blossoms are welcome, like wild plum, serviceberry, ornamental cherry, and crabapple. However, others are not. Looking at you, Callery pear AKA Bradford pear.

Bradford pear trees grow fast and in just about any soil. They have pretty white flowers in the spring (which some people think smell terrible, but I've never noticed) and pretty reddish leaves in the fall. For a while they were popular and everyone was planting them.

But soon people discovered problems with the trees. They have a weak branch structure. When a tree gets large it is easily split or knocked over by wind.  Originally they were thought to be sterile, but it turns out they can cross-pollinate with other strains of ornamental pear trees. Birds eat the berries and poop out the viable seeds, which grow into invasive thickets of thorny trees.

Weed tree thicket. Nothing planted on purpose here.

The Department of Conservation has put Callery pears on the Invasive list. A bill has been introduced in the state House of Representatives that would pull the certification of nurseries if they sold it (and a couple of other invasive plants). There have also been a couple of 'buy back' programs that will give people a free native tree if they provide proof they've cut down a Callery pear.

Five years ago today: Put Water In Plants