Relatives

Pyrus salicifolia Pall. - Willow-leaf pear.

Taxonomic position.

Family Rosaceae Juss., genus Pyrus L.

Synonyms.

Pyrus argyrophylla Diap.

Morphology and biology.

Tree, up to 8-10 m tall, sometimes a shrub with a broad crown and numerous prickles. Young shoots are densely tomentose, reddish green. Leaves are narrow, lanceolate or oblong-ovate, 6-9 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide, with dense pubescence below and sometimes above. Leaf edges are smooth or sparsely crenate, with dark glandules on the dent tips. Flowers, 2.5-3 cm in diameter, are assembled into inflorescences, each consisting of 5-7 (9) flowers. Petals are white, narrow, concave. Fruits are roundish or obtusely conical, yellowish green, sometimes with rusty spots; slightly pubescent young fruits later become bare. Pulp is coarse, sour-sweet, very astringent, hardly edible. Entomophilous. Zoochore. Blossoms in April/May; bears fruit in late July/September. 2n=34.

Distribution.

Occurs in the Caucasus (Eastern Ante-Caucasus, Daghestan, Eastern and Southern Transcaucasia, Talysh), Western Iran, and Asia Minor.

Ecology.

Xerophyte. Occurs in the lower and middle mountain zones from 300 to 1,800 m above sea level in arid, sparse growths of trees, on dry stony slopes and in steppes.

Utilization and economic value.

Food (fruit), melliferous. Has great importance as a drought- and frost-resistant species and is undemanding to soils, thus being promising for breeding as well as for utilization as a seedling stock.

References:

Brezhnev D.D., Korovina O.N. 1981. Wild relatives of cultivated plants in the flora of the USSR. Leningrad: Kolos, p. 188 (in Russian).
Likhonos F.D., Tuz A.S., Lobachev A.Y. 1983. Cultivated flora of the USSR. Pome fruit trees (apple, pear and quince). Vol. 14. Moscow: Kolos, pp. 163-164 (in Russian).
Sokolov S.I., Svjaseva O.A., Kubli V.A. 1980. Areas of distribution of trees and shrubs in the USSR. Vol. 2. Leningrad: Nauka, p. 58 (in Russian).

© I.G. Chukhina

Copyright on the picture belongs to W. Semenov.
 

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