Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Botany and Taxonomy of Pear

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Pear Genome

Part of the book series: Compendium of Plant Genomes ((CPG))

Abstract

Pear belongs to the Rosaceae family as most of the cultivated fruit trees. It is the second fruit tree crop in terms of production after apple. Its production has increased these last decades to reach a world production of more than 27 megatons for almost 1,600,000 ha. Pears have been cultivated in Europe and in Asia for more than 5000 years. Of all known and reported pear species and interspecific hybrids, five are mainly cultivated. These include the European pear, Pyrus communis, and the Asian pears P. pyrifolia, P. × bretschneideri, P. ussuriensis, and P. sinkiangensis. Fruits of European pears are elongated and have a full-bodied texture, while those of Asian pears are round and have a sandy texture. The Pyrus genus belongs to the Amygdaloideae subfamily and the Malinae tribe and consists of about 75–80 species and interspecific hybrid species. As several hybridizations are observed among Pyrus species, this renders the distinction among some pear species rather difficult. The origin of the Pyrus genus dates back to the Oligocene epoch, about 33.35–25.23 Mya. It is a genus of mainly deciduous trees and shrubs spread throughout temperate Eurasia, reaching the Atlas Mountains in North Africa and extending to Japan and South China. Pyrus species produce generally simple leaves alternately arranged. Leaves are glossy green on some species, densely silvery hairy in some others. Pyrus flowers are white, borne in corymbs on short spurs or lateral branchlets and are composed of five sepals, five petals, numerous stamens, and usually a five-locular ovary with free styles. The Pyrus fruit is a pseudo-fruit composed of the receptacle or the calyx tube, greatly dilated, enclosing the true fruit, and consisting of five cartilaginous carpels, known as the core. Morphological characters of the leaf, fruit, and calyx are commonly used to differentiate among Pyrus species. There are thousands of pear cultivars over the world with wide diversity for fruit shape, taste, and texture. In this chapter, we have focused on the description of cultivated Pyrus species and on some of the main cultivated cultivars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aas G (1999) Die Wildbirne aus systematisch-botanischer Sicht. Berichte Aus Bayer Landesan-Stalt Für Wald Forstwirtsch 23:2–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Asanidze Z, Akhalkatsi M, Gvritishvili M (2011) Comparative morphometric study and relationships between the Caucasian species of wild pear (Pyrus spp.) and local cultivars in Georgia. Flora-Morphol Distrib Funct Ecol Plants 206:974–986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aydin ZU, Dönmez AA (2015) Taxonomic and nomenclatural contributions to Pyrus L. (Rosaceae) from Turkey. Turk J Bot 39:841–849

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey LH, Bailey EZ (1976) Hortus third: a concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada, 1st edn. Macmillan, New York, USA, p 1290

    Google Scholar 

  • Bao L, Chen K, Zhang D, Cao Y, Yamamoto T, Teng Y (2007) Genetic diversity and similarity of pear (Pyrus L.) cultivars native to East Asia revealed by SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. Genet Resour Crop Evol 54:959. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-006-9152-y

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bassil N, Postman JD (2010) Identification of European and Asian pears using EST-SSRs from Pyrus. Genet Resour Crop Evol 57:357–370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bretaudeau J, Fauré Y (1991) Atlas d’arboriculture fruitière. Ed. Lavoisier technique et documentation, Paris, France, 289p

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer LR, Palmer JW (2011) Global pear breeding programs: goals, trends and progress for new cultivars and new rootstocks. Acta Hortic, 105–119. https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2011.909.10

  • Campbell CS, Evans RC, Morgan DR, Dickinson TA, Arsenault MP (2007) Phylogeny of subtribe Pyrinae (formerly the Maloideae, Rosaceae): limited resolution of a complex evolutionary history. Plant Syst Evol 266:119–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-007-0545-y

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chagné D, Crowhurst RN, Pindo M, Thrimawithana A, Deng C, Ireland H, Fiers M, Dzierzon H, Cestaro A, Fontana P, Bianco L, Lu A, Storey R, Knäbel M, Saeed M, Montanari S, Kim YK, Nicolini D, Larger S, Stefani E, Allan AC, Bowen J, Harvey I, Johnston J, Malnoy M, Troggio M, Perchepied L, Sawyer G, Wiedow C, Won K, Viola R, Hellens RP, Brewer L, Bus VGM, Schaffer RJ, Gardiner SE, Velasco R (2014) The draft genome sequence of European Pear (Pyrus communis L. ‘Bartlett’). PLoS ONE 9:e92644. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092644

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chang Y-J, Cao Y-F, Zhang J-M, Tian L-M, Dong X-G, Zhang Y, Qi D, Zhang X (2017) Study on chloroplast DNA diversity of cultivated and wild pears (Pyrus L.) in Northern China. Tree Genet Genomes 13:44

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase MW, Christenhusz MJM, Fay MF, Byng JW, Judd WS, Soltis DE, Mabberley DJ, Sennikov AN, Soltis PS, Stevens PF (2016) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Bot J Linn Soc 181:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coste H, Flahault C (1903) Flore descriptive et illustrée de la France, de la Corse, et des contrées limitrophes.tome 2. Ed. P. Klincksieck, Paris, France, 627 p

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vilmorin J-B, Clebant M (1996) Le Jardin des Hommes: l’histoire des plantes cultivées. France, Paris, p 304

    Google Scholar 

  • Debuigne G, Couplan F (2006) Petit Larousse des Plantes qui Guérissent: 500 plantes. Ed. Larousse, Paris, France, 892 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Dondini L, Sansavini S (2012) European pear. Fruit breeding. Springer, Boston, MA, pp 369–413

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Drudze I (2004) New apple and pear selections from hybrid material of “Iedzeni” in Latvia. Acta Hortic, 895–898. https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2004.663.163

  • eFloras (2008) eFloras.org Home. http://efloras.org/index.aspx. Accessed 21 Feb 2018. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA

  • Evans KM, Fernández-Fernández F, Bassil N, Nyberg AM, Postman JD (2015) Comparison of accessions from the UK and US national pear germplasm collections with a standardized set of microsatellite markers. Acta Hortic 1094:41–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2018) FAOSTAT. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home. Accessed 6 Feb 2018

  • Faoro ID, Orth AI (2014) Flower visiting insects during the bloom period of Japanese pear orchards in Brazil. XII Int Pear Symp 1094:275–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Faoro ID, Orth AI (2011) Nectar production and quality in Japanese pear cultivars in south Brazil. Acta Hortic 909:409–414. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.909.46

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farkas A, Szabo LG, Orosz-Kovacs Z (2002) Nectar composition in some pear cultivars. Acta Hortic 596:761–765. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2002.596.131

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferradini N, Lancioni H, Torricelli R, Russi L, Dalla Ragione I, Cardinali I, Marconi G, Gramaccia M, Concezzi L, Achilli A, Veronesi F, Albertini E (2017) Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of ancient Italian landraces of pear. Front Plant Sci 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00751

  • Flores B (1999) The Great book of pears. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, Toronto, Canada, p 163

    Google Scholar 

  • Franceschi PD, Dondini L, Sanzol J (2012) Molecular bases and evolutionary dynamics of self-incompatibility in the Pyrinae (Rosaceae). J Exp Bot 63:4015–4032. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ers108

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hedrick UP, Howe GH, George H, Taylor OM, Tukey HB (1921) The pears of New York. J.B. Lyon Co., Albany, USA, 636 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessayon DG (1990) The Fruit Expert. Ed. Expert Books, Norwich, UK, 128 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Iketani H (2016) Native fruit tree genetic resources in Japan. Breed Sci 66:82–89

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Iketani H, Katayama H, Uematsu C, Mase N, Sato Y, Yamamoto T (2012) Genetic structure of East Asian cultivated pears (Pyrus spp.) and their reclassification in accordance with the nomenclature of cultivated plants. Plant Syst Evol 298:1689–1700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-012-0670-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SM, Priyadarshan PM (2009) Breeding plantation tree crops: temperate species. Springer Science & Business Media, New York, USA, p 294

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jun W, Hongsheng G (2002) The production of Asian pears in China. Acta Hortic, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2002.587.4

  • Katayama H, Amo H, Wuyun T, Uematsu C, Iketani H (2016) Genetic structure and diversity of the wild Ussurian pear in East Asia. Breed Sci 66:90–99

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kell S, Qin H, Chen B, Ford-Lloyd B, Wei W, Kang D, Maxted N (2015) China’s crop wild relatives: diversity for agriculture and food security. Agric Ecosyst Environ 209:138–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim YK, Won KH, Lee UY, Yim SH, Shin IS, Kang SS, Han JD, Lee HC (2015) Genetic diversity of Asian and European pear using simple sequenced repeats markers analysis. Acta Hortic 1094:67–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korotkova N, Nauheimer L, Ter-Voskanyan H, Allgaier M, Borsch T (2014) Variability among the most rapidly evolving plastid genomic regions is lineage-specific: implications of pairwise genome comparisons in Pyrus (Rosaceae) and other angiosperms for marker choice. PLoS ONE 9:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0112998

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Korotkova N, Parolly G, Khachatryan A, Ghulikyan L, Sargsyan H, Akopian J, Borsch T, Gruenstaeudl M (2018) Towards resolving the evolutionary history of Caucasian pears (Pyrus, Rosaceae) -Phylogenetic relationships, divergence times and leaf trait evolution. J Syst Evol 56:35–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee H-S, Isse T, Kawamoto T, Woo H-S, Kim AK, Park JY, Yang M (2012) Effects and action mechanisms of Korean pear (Pyrus pyrifolia cv. Shingo) on alcohol detoxification. Phytother Res 26:1753–1758. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.4630

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leroy A (1867) Dictionnaire de Pomologie, tome 1. Angers, France, p 615

    Google Scholar 

  • Lo EYY, Donoghue MJ (2012) Expanded phylogenetic and dating analyses of the apples and their relatives (Pyreae, Rosaceae). Mol Phylogenet Evol 63:230–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.10.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer DF, Miliczky ER, Lunden JD (1990) Pollination of pears. In: Pear production in the Pacific Northwest. University of California Press, Davis, CA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Miranda C, Urrestarazu J, Santesteban LG, Royo JB, Urbina V (2010) Genetic diversity and structure in a collection of ancient Spanish pear cultivars assessed by microsatellite markers. J Am Soc Hort Sci 135:428–437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moriya Y, Takai Y, Okada K, Ito D, Shiozaki Y, Nakanishi T, Takasaki T (2005) Parthenocarpy and self- and cross-incompatibility in ten European pear cultivars. J Jpn Soc Hortic Sci 74:424–430. https://doi.org/10.2503/jjshs.74.424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NSW (2017) Apples, pears and other pome fruits. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/horticulture/pomes. Accessed 23 Feb 2018

  • Nyéki A, Porpaczy A, Soltész M, Szabo Z, Ivancsics J (1998) Self fertility of pear varieties conditioned by natural self pollination (autogamy). Acta Hortic 475:433–434. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.475.53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Opoix O (1896) La Culture du Poirier. Bibliothéque d’Horticulture, Paris, France, p 275

    Google Scholar 

  • Paris N (1996) Pollinisation du poirier. Bull Apic Tech 23:195–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesson P, Louveaux J (1984) Pollinisation et Productions Végétales. Ed. Quae, France, 704 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Petri JL, Herter F (2002) Nashi pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) dormancy under mild temperature clomate conditions. Acta Hortic, 353–361. https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2002.587.47

  • Quinet M, Jacquemart A-L (2015) Difference between pollination and parthenocarpy in the “Conférence” pear production. Acta Hortic 1094:359–366. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1094.45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinet M, Kelecom S, Jacquemart A-L (2014) S-genotype characterization of 13 North-Western European pear (Pyrus communis) cultivars. Sci Hortic 165:1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2013.10.023

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinet M, Warzée M, Vanderplanck M, Michez D, Lognay G, Jacquemart A-L (2016) Do floral resources influence pollination rates and subsequent fruit set in pear (Pyrus communis L.) and apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) cultivars? Eur J Agron 77:59–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rameau JC, Mansion D, Dumé G, Timbal J, Lecointe A, Dupont P, Keller R (1989) Flore forestière française, guide écologique illustré. 1. Plaines et collines. Institut pour le développement forestier, Paris, France, 1785 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Royer A (1853) Les Annales de Pomologie Belge et Étrangère. Commission royale de Pomologie, Bruxelles, Belgique, p 880

    Google Scholar 

  • Saito T (2016) Advances in Japanese pear breeding in Japan. Breed Sci 66:46–59

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sassa H, Kakui H, Minamikawa M (2009) Pollen-expressed F-box gene family and mechanism of S-RNase-based gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI) in Rosaceae. Sex Plant Reprod 23:39–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-009-0111-6

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silva GJ, Souza TM, Barbieri RL, Costa de Oliveira A (2014) Origin, domestication, and dispersing of pear (Pyrus spp.). Adv Agric 2014:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/541097

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens PF (2017) Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/. Accessed 10 Feb 2018

  • Teng Y (2011) The pear industry and research in China. Acta Hortic 909:161–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teng Y, Yue X, Zheng X, Cai D (2015) Genetic clue to the origin of cultivated Asian pears inferred from cpDNA haplotypes. Acta Hortic, 31–39

    Google Scholar 

  • USA pears (2018) List of ten pear varieties—USA pears. http://usapears.org/pear-varieties/. Accessed 22 Feb 2018

  • Wesel J-P (1996) Pomone jodoignoise. Ed. Jodoigne Passé Présent, Jodoigne, Belgique, 133 p

    Google Scholar 

  • White A (2002) Asian pear production and research trends in New Zealand and Australia. Acta Hortic 587:107–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Wang Z, Shi Z, Zhang S, Ming R, Zhu S, Khan MA, Tao S, Korban SS, Wang H, Chen NJ, Nishio T, Xu X, Cong L, Qi K, Huang X, Wang Y, Zhao X, Wu J, Deng C, Gou C, Zhou W, Yin H, Qin G, Sha Y, Tao Y, Chen H, Yang Y, Song Y, Zhan D, Wang J, Li L, Dai M, Gu C, Wang Y, Shi D, Wang X, Zhang H, Zeng L, Zheng D, Wang C, Chen M, Wang G, Xie L, Sovero V, Sha S, Huang W, Zhang S, Zhang M, Sun J, Xu L, Li Y, Liu X, Li Q, Shen J, Wang J, Paull RE, Bennetzen JL, Wang J, Zhang S (2013) The genome of the pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.). Genome Res 23:396–408. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.144311.112

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Wang Y, Xu J, Korban SS, Fei Z, Tao S, Ming R, Tai S, Khan MA, Postman JD, Gu C, Yin H, Zheng D, Qi K, Li Y, Wang R, Deng CH, Kumar S, Chagné D, Li X, Wu J, Huang X, Zhang H, Xie Z, Li X, Zhang M, Li Y, Yue Z, Fang X, Li J, Li L, Jin C, Qin M, Zhang J, Wu X, Ke Y, Wang J, Yang H, Zhang S (2018) Diversification and independent domestication of Asian and European pears. Genome Biol 19:77. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-018-1452-y

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang Y, Huang C-H, Hu Y, Wen J, Li S, Yi T, Chen H, Xiang J, Ma H (2017) Evolution of Rosaceae fruit types based on nuclear phylogeny in the context of geological times and genome duplication. Mol Biol Evol 34:262–281. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw242

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto T, Terakami S (2016) Genomics of pear and other Rosaceae fruit trees. Breed Sci 66:148–159

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yao L, Zheng X, Cai D, Gao Y, Wang K, Cao Y, Teng Y (2010) Exploitation of Malus EST-SSRs and the utility in evaluation of genetic diversity in Malus and Pyrus. Genet Resour Crop Evol 57:841–851

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yue X, Liu G, Zong Y, Teng Y, Cai D (2014) Development of genic SSR markers from transcriptome sequencing of pear buds. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B 15:303–312

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zamani A, Attar F, Civeyrel L (2017) Leaf epidermis characters of Iranian Pyrus L. (Rosaceae) and their taxonomic implications. Genet Resour Crop Evol 64:159–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng X, Cai D, Potter D, Postman J, Liu J, Teng Y (2014) Phylogeny and evolutionary histories of Pyrus L. revealed by phylogenetic trees and networks based on data from multiple DNA sequences. Mol Phylogenet Evol 80:54–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.07.009

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Groupe de Recherche en Physiologie Végétale, Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Muriel Quinet

  2. Flore et Pomone asbl, Jodoigne, Belgium

    Jean-Pierre Wesel

Authors
  1. Muriel Quinet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jean-Pierre Wesel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muriel Quinet .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Schuyler S. Korban

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Quinet, M., Wesel, JP. (2019). Botany and Taxonomy of Pear. In: Korban, S. (eds) The Pear Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11048-2_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation