Bradford pear trees banned in few states – More are looking to eradicate them

[beezle]

Was on HOA board where we had a road with quite a few of these trees. They were a fortune to prune because of the numerous small branches at higher reaches. As a board, we actually hoped they would come down in storms so we could replace with something more appropriate without the take down cost (and resident complaints).

Another unqiue thing is during the summer it was not uncommon for a branch to suddenly explode - apparently some type of moisture/vapor build up in the interior.

[echelon]

Bradford pears were all the rage in the 1990s to 2000s. At one point HOAs thought these were the best tree. Local gardens and nurseries would sell lots of them to landscapers and homeowners.

To this day, they're all over my home state of Georgia. And they're still selected for new landscaping.

They did have a few pros:

- Look great in the spring

- Huge, lush, thick canopy in the summer

- Fast growing

But there are way too many problems:

- Kills all the grass underneath them from shade and root structure

- Seedlings and root offshoots are pervasive pests

- Produces a lot of fruit, and it's toxic to humans and dogs. It smells bad and can smear if you step on it

- Trees only live 7 - 15 years, and they leave a gnarly root system to deal with.

- Extremely prone to falling over during winds or tornadoes. Can easily damage fences, housing, etc. We had to replace our fence once because of one. Even small storms can bring down the older trees.

- And of course, everyone knows how awful they smell in the spring

[flutas]

They also smell like someone took a rotting fish, dunked it in sewage and decided to roast it in the sun for a few days.

They're everywhere where I live, and it's so bad.

[cafard]

Where was this? In Maryland they would break, a lot, but I never heard of them exploding. I don't think the people in our development loved them. Certainly I had seen a few too many across somebody's lawn or walk.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

The company that I worked for, had a row of these across the primo parking spaces.

During the fall months, these parking spaces were always available.

I found out why.

If you park under one of these things in November, you come out in the evening, and it looks like every incontinent buzzard on Earth sat over your car.

[tomohawk]

I thought you were going to say something about how large branches will just pop off and crush anything beneath them at random times. This is due to how multiple branches will come from the trunk at the same point, and are weakly attached.

EDIT:

Having finally eradicated all of the ones from our land, the best method is to immediately pour herbicide onto the trunk after cutting it down. The herbicide will get sucked down into the roots this way. If you don't do this, you'll get new suckers all over the place for a few years.

[pandemic_region]

Does 'sat over' imply 'shat on'?

[hollywood_court]

This is good news. In my area the only thing worse than Bradford pears are the Mimosas. It took me ~3 years of consistent work to clear off the Mimosas from our 1 acre lot in town. And I still have to spray or hand pull hundreds of the tiny ones each season because none of my neighbors have been as diligent.

[stass]

What's wrong with Mimosas? They smell so nice in spring!

[hammock]

Important note: There are now hybrid species that don't have the same downsides as the original true Bradford pear. Most of what are planted now are these hybrids.

[datavirtue]

I think those are what I have in my yard as I was not seeing any issues with them. No weird smell, shoots, or lifespan problems.

[GenerWork]

I love reading about this kind of stuff. My neighbor has a bunch of Brazilian pepper trees, and let me tell you, those things are a nightmare. Incredibly invasive, grows extremely well in our climate, no natural predators here, and they outcompete almost every other tree. I cut a branch from one that was deforming a palm tree due to the way the branch had grown.

[razeh]

When the article got to the part where the trees were thought to be sterile, did anyone else hear Jeff Goldblum saying “Life finds a way”?

[pvaldes]

Nah, the velocibradfors can't reproduce. Everything is fine

[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> But somewhere along the line other Callery pear trees and Bradford pear trees cross-pollinated and some began producing viable fruit. Birds and mammals eat the fruit and poop out the seeds, often far from the tree from which it came.

"Life ... finds a way".

... with bird poop.

The latter probably not in Jeff Goldblum's voice though.

[bagels]

They need a better name that conveys their vile nature. I love pears. Why are people so upset about a pear tree I initially thought?

[bitbckt]

“Cum tree” doesn’t do it for you?

[gweinberg]

Why did anyone want pear trees whose fruit is inedible and whose flowers smell bad in the first place?

[Turing_Machine]

They're dirt-cheap and grow extremely fast.

Just the ticket for fly-by-night real estate developers.

By the time they get big enough to cause problems, the developer is long gone, off to fleece other suckers.

[pvaldes]

Because they have a lot of convenient features. Specially that they are supernarrow in their first decades. Other traits weren't so much desirable.

Inedible fruit is a desirable trait in urbanism. Not necessarily a bad thing.

[riffic]

blackcurrants were banned too (by federal united states gov) for some sort of complicated reason

[bigbillheck]

It's a host for white pine blister rust.

[davexunit]

Blackcurrant bans feel too heavy-handed to me. Currants are a wonderful berry, very easy to grow, and one of the easiest woody plants to propagate.

[shockeychap]

Is it me, or does it seem like "invasive pear tree" has become a big story this spring, seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe I just don't follow news around this, but this spring there have been both local and national stories about municipalities dealing with these trees. I'm not saying it's not a story, just that I wasn't aware of it before and am wondering if it reached some kind of critical mass as a problem just this year.

[mechanicalpulse]

It's you. :) More magnanimously, you caught the story for the first time this year. I seem to come across a story about it every year around this time ever since first learning of it a couple of years ago through the Tennessee Naturalists community I follow on Facebook. As the tree spreads, so too does the knowledge of its unflattering qualities. Awareness efforts are likely to continue until community leaders take action.

[1letterunixname]

Oh damn, and I thought lemon trees were fun to prune. These can kill you and smell terrible. At least lemon trees tend to smell nice while threatening you with enormous thorns during pruning.

Somewhat worse: Krauter Vesuvius / Cherry Plum trees stain sidewalks and make a horrible mess every year.

[tycho-newman]

I thought these were linden trees this whole time.

[brightball]

I'm in one of the states that banned them and I used to have 2 in my back yard. Never really understood the fuss.

[sarchertech]

They’re invasive, they outcompete native trees, and they have many negative attributes. The wild descendants are particularly bad because they have thorns and grow in dense hard to remove thickets.

[happytiger]

Beyond the invasive mess they are making, there’s this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/23agnj/til_t...

[autokad]

This answers a lot for me, I always wanted why they planted this tree everywhere when it smells so awful.

[landr0id]

relevant: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7x4zza/heres-why-the-trees-o...

[aendruk]

I really wish submissions could be tagged to warn about auto-playing video.

[delichon]

  The original Bradford pear tree was ideal for planting because it was thought to be sterile in that it could not reproduce. -- TFA

  John Hammond: There you are. There. They imprint on the first creature they come in contact with. Helps them to trust me. I've been present for the birth of every creature on this island.
  Ian Malcolm: Well, surely not the ones that have bred in the wild.
  Henry Wu: Actually, they can't breed in the wild. Population control is one of our security precautions. There is no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park.
  Ian Malcolm: Uh, and how do you know they can't breed?
  Henry Wu: Well that's because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female. We've engineered them that way.

[gweinberg]

One of the more ridiculous concepts in a completely ridiculous movie. The frogs and fish that "change their sex" just change what kind of gametes they make in their splooge. Totally re-plumbing their insides would a completely different kettle of fish.

[fervor]

They smell

[joe_guy]

> it's contributing to the spread of related invasive trees that are taking over some urban green spaces and pastureland and encroaching on forests.

I'll save you from the auto playing view port locker video.

[Terr_]

A few more key points:

* At first the species being planted everywhere was considered sterile, but somehow cross-pollination with related varieties can make them produce viable fruit, then animals spread the seeds.

* The fruit is not edible to humans.

* Some varieties have nasty thorns on them, able to pop vehicle tires, and over time grow together into thickets.

[pkaye]

When we bought our house we had 3 city trees which were Bradford pear trees. We lots two of them during rainy season. One lost a major branch. The other got uprooted. I've read Bradford tree

I'm in California. Our city doesn't allow Bradford pear trees anymore. When we bought our hour we had three Bradford pear trees. Over time we lost two of them during rainy seasons. One got uprooted and the other broke off a major branch. Both times it was fortunate that nobody was injured or property got damaged. Ended up replacing them all.

[skeledrew]

Ah, typical. Nature taking its course and, once again, humans decide they know what's better and is going in to "correct" things. Then a few years in there's the cry about the disruption that was caused, and yet even more attempts at rectification. A never-ending cycle, because we can't learn to be hands off. Well I guess the cycle will eventually end given things are always somewhat worse with every swing of the correction pendulum, so at some point it'll all just... crash.

[bungeonsBaggins]

I don't mean to blow your mind, but humans are a part of nature. One advantage we have over other species is that we can spot patterns and work collectively to fix undesirable situations or circumstances. And if our fix causes further problems, we can fix those too!

We're flawed creatures so it's not ideal, but it sure beats being at the mercy of the forces nature uses to correct things on its own, like diseases and famine.

[oasisbob]

The Bradford pear is a cultivar of an imported species from Asia.

Nothing about this tree growing in North America is "nature taking its course".

Humans decided to cultivate it here, and we can choose to stop. Cycles of correction, sure, but attempting to fix problems due to introduced species seems like a worthwhile effort.

[hollywood_court]

If we were 'hands off', the Bradford Pear would have never made it to North America in the first place.

[pessimizer]

> Nature taking its course

Lawns and backyards.