COLUMBIA, Mo. — Reid Smeda, University of Missouri plant scientist, will speak on the Bradford pear tree and its cousins at a Callery pear educational event hosted by the Missouri Invasive Plant Task Force. Smeda studies invasive species in Missouri and serves on the task force.
The free event is 2-3 p.m. Friday, April 13, at MU Health Care South Providence Medical Park, 551 E. Southampton Drive, which is on land infested with Callery pear.
Representatives of Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Missouri Department of Conservation, Columbia Parks and Recreation, and Columbia Fire Department also will speak. Conservation and horticulture specialists will show how to identify and control Callery pear.
Callery pear grows in dense stands and outcompete native plants for light and nutrients, Smeda says. He and his research assistants study the movement of Bradford and other types of Callery pear trees from rural areas to the suburbs.
The event is open to the public.
Rock Bridge Memorial State Park will host a Callery pear volunteer workday 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17. Park staff will show how to cut trees and apply herbicides. They will provide tools and herbicides. Call 573-449-7400 for reservations. In case of bad weather, the event will be April 19.
For more information about the Missouri Invasive Plant Task Force, visit www.moinvasives.org(opens in new window).
— Linda Geist, University of Missouri Extension
For more news from Missouri, click here.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Bradford pear trees are a common landscape tree in yards across Kentucky. A cultivar of the Callery pear species, the spring-flowering trees are stunning in bloom but have a smell commonly compared to “dead fish.” These trees’ offspring, the invasive Callery pear, can also take over old fields and roadside vegetation, and even invade higher quality natural areas. The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and their partners are working to help remedy these problems for landowners through an upcoming tree replacement program. UK College of […]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape trees have spawned aggressive invaders, creating thickets that overwhelm native plants and sport nasty four-inch spikes. Bradford pears and 24 other ornamental trees were developed from Callery pears — a species brought to America a century ago to save ravaged pear orchards. Now, their invasive […]
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The PA Department of Agriculture added Callery pear, or Pyrus calleryana, commonly called Bradford Pear to a list of noxious weeds — plants that cannot be legally sold or cultivated in the state. The popular, non-native, flowering fruit tree naturalizes, spreading from planted landscapes, crowding out other plants and disrupting native ecosystems. […]
