Kansas City, Missouri— They bloom in early spring with white or lavender flowers and provide food and shelter for songbirds and butterflies. Native trees like serviceberry and redbud benefit wildlife and add color to the landscaping of homes and businesses, said Taylor Neff, forest ranger for the MDC community. Neff and other MDC rangers recommend early-blooming native trees and urge homeowners and landscaping services to avoid planting non-native trees like the invasive Callery pear cultivars.
While profusely flowering Callery pear varieties provide a brief burst of spring color, they also pose problems, including becoming an invasive enemy for native plants.
“They’re spreading across natural areas, crowding out beneficial native species,” Neff said.
Callery varieties of pears bloom in yards and in front of shops in spring, because they have long been planted as an ornamental plant for landscape design. But they have fled to woods, forests, pastures, parks and rights of way where they are not wanted. They grow quickly and shade native plants that also provide beauty and provide more benefits to wildlife. Callery pear varieties harbor few of the insects that birds depend on for food. Birds eat their berries, but this disperses the seeds and encourages invasion.
Callery pear varieties planted as ornamentals have hybridized and become very invasive. Cultivated varieties of this plant available for sale include Aristocrat, Autumn Blaze, Bradford, Capital, Chanticleer (aka Cleveland Select), New Bradford, and Redspire, among others. All are invasive and should not be planted. Individual cultivars are considered self-sterile, but different cultivars planted close together can pollinate each other and produce fruit and viable seeds.
In addition to being invasive, the Callery pear varieties have disadvantages when used in landscaping.
“They usually have a poor, multi-stemmed structure that causes them to break off easily from wind, ice, and snow,” Neff said. “They can be very high-maintenance.”
Callery pear varieties also grow quickly, she said. This coupled with the poor structure often means they are pruned annually rather than a more normal three to five year pruning schedule you see with native species.
Native trees that make good ornamental plants are available, including spring flowering varieties. Missouri’s state tree, flowering dogwood, provides white flowers and is attractive on lawns in shady locations. Serviceberry provides early white flowers but also red berries that are edible to humans and songbirds. Other flowering options include red horse chestnut, yellowwood, redbud, blackhaw viburnum, hophornbeam, and chokecherry. A mix of tree species offers a variety of blooms and benefits. Native trees harbor valuable insects that are important food sources for birds, and they harbor the caterpillars for butterflies and moths.
For more information on Callery pear tree problems and how to remove or control them, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/4MJ. A good source of information on native plants and trees for landscaping is available at http://www.grownative.org. To learn more about an upcoming Callery pear buyback program in the Kansas City area sponsored by Deep Roots KC, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/4M3.
mdc.mo.gov
https://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/mdc-recommends-native-trees-early-spring-blooms-kansas-city-region
