Callery Pear

Pyrus calleryana

Location in Nebraska

Found throughout the state

Management

The simplest method of controlling the spread of callery pear is to avoid planting it. If white flowers are desired, choose alternate species such as flowering crabapples, serviceberry, Japanese tree lilac, whitebud, yellowwood, or seven-sons-shrub.  In areas with existing callery pears, match the cultivar if replacements are necessary and switching to a different species is not an option.  If seedlings appear in turf areas, regular mowing will control them.  However, mowing can also lead to more aggressive resprouting.  In prairies or infrequently mowed areas or landscape beds, pull the entire root system of young plants or use a broadleaf herbicide according to label directions. Larger trees can be cut down and the stumps treated with glyphosate or trichlopyr.  Grinding the stumps to remove them may trigger suckering from remaining roots, which will then need to be treated.

Photo Credits: 

Britt Slattery, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bugwood.org
Chris Evans, University of Illinois, Bugwood.org
James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org
Dan Tenaglia, Missouriplants.com, Bugwood.org
Chuck Bargeron, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org