Plymouth, Devon Few would give it a second look but this scruffy-looking pear is one of Britain’s rarest trees
There’s a wooden picnic bench on the grass, though it is not the most inviting of locations to stop for lunch, next to an ambulance vehicle depot and overshadowed by a multi-storey car park. In sunny weather, I imagine workers from nearby Derriford hospital might visit this secluded spot during a break. But on this rainy autumn day, I have it to myself and with it a natural treasure that has endured here for more than 60 years, even as the buildings have sprung up around it. Fenced off in a corner near the bench stands a Plymouth pear (Pyrus cordata), named after the area where it was first spotted in 1870.
This unremarkable-looking species in an unremarkable setting is one of Britain’s rarest trees. Only a few other wild specimens are known to exist in the West Country: in the hedgerows of Plymouth and near Truro in Cornwall. And the protected individual at Derriford, a cluster of trunks supporting a dense spread of small leaves, is on the shortlist for Woodland Trust’s tree of the year award.
It is “a bit of an ugly duckling in the tree world, small and scrubby for most of the time,” admits Andrew Young, the Plymouth Tree Partnership volunteer who nominated it for the award. But it is “absolutely beautiful when covered with its pure white flowers in spring”.
Those flowers have now borne fruit: a meagre and unappetising-looking crop dotted about the canopy, partly covered in netting to keep the birds off. Hard and marble-sized, the fruit helps distinguish this species from the domestic pear (Pyrus communis), as do the purplish twigs that grow from its spiny branches. The seeds are seldom viable, which is why it has remained so scarce and is the subject of a conservation recovery programme.
P cordata also grows on the continent, and it is unclear when or how it originally spread here. This scruffy survivor may not have the grandeur or history of some of the other tree award finalists – such as Sherwood Forest’s Parliament Oak with its royal connections and the ancient Crowhurst Yew in East Sussex – but for rarity it can’t be beaten.
Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaJ2eq7azu82mnKesX2d9coOOqJqtZ2FrfKS71Kerq7Fdmbaivthmp6WxnaTCtbSMqZyaql2jrrW1zqeYpWWkp7Kiv9SrnA%3D%3D