OHIO – You find them everywhere those white blooms with the small flowers with a strong smell, some streets are lined with them but next year they will become illegal to plant, or sold in Ohio.
The Callery Pear trees, other names Bradford Pears or sometimes Cleveland Select have been put on the invasive tree species list because of their aggression and their tendency to crowd out native plants.
Most of the time the tree goes unnoticed until around the beginning of spring when those normal trees turn completely white with blossoms.
“You’ll see it a lot of times in a vacant lot that maybe was disturbed by construction and then left sitting. And then you can see thousands of pear seedlings coming up and they really just take over,” said Dan Kenny, Ohio Department of Agriculture chief of the division of plant health.
Callery Pear Trees are blooming all over, but this tree is bad for our area. They're non-native, has white flowers & is highly invasive. They choke out native plants & are hard to control. To manage, cut them down & treat stumps. Replace them w/ Serviceberry, Redbud or Dogwoods. pic.twitter.com/yDj8xt0F1D
— Cincinnati Parks (@CincyParks) March 30, 2022
Now property owners do not have to remove existing trees from their yards, the law only applies to future trees to be sold or planted.
The tree has already been spread though, and it will take more information to get out to help stop the spread of the species. Originally these trees were found on Easy Asia and brought to the US in 1950 as a new kind of tree for the area.
