Callery pear

noun

Cal·le·ry pear | \ ˈka-lə-rē-

variants: or callery pear

Definition of Callery pear

1 : a deciduous tree (Pyrus calleryana) of the rose family that has upright branches forming a conical crown, heart-shaped glossy leaves with finely serrated margins, showy clusters of white flowers, and small, bitter, brownish round fruits

Note: The Callery pear is native to China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. Its twigs are often tipped with a single thorn.

2 : any of several thornless ornamental cultivars of the Callery pear Callery pears … have earned both a 2005 Urban Tree of the Year award … and a place on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service list of highly invasive plants in the Mid-Atlantic. —Susan Milius especially : bradford pear … the campaign to curtail the planting of ornamental Bradford pears (also called callery pears). These trees are notorious for "weak crotches," which are right where the heavy snow broke off limbs. —Michael Martin