Bradford pears at hoary age

Tree #93 Bradford pear

Spring in Memphis is peppered with white flowering trees before almost any other blooms can be seen. These are usually young trees that are highly symmetrical like a child's top upside down.  There is a large collection of these trees at the cloverleaf of Poplar and I-240. They are very showy in the spring. However, trees get old just like people and they lose their symmetry and a few branches and they get bigger. Here are two Bradford pears that have seen a few winters.

An old Bradford pear on Wildberry, August 2, 2014

Same tree from the other side

Looking out from the driveway

The rather large, cracked and weathered trunk

A tree with some character, like some people I know. This tree gave me some difficulty in identifying it since it is so large. It did not occur to me that it would be a pear. I was thinking the leaves looked rather like a linden or lime tree, those trees that line the Paris streets and are shaped into tall rectangular hedges. I was corrected by the owner who told me it was a Bradford pear and its twin in the same yard had already been taken down. He was not sure how long it would last.

Another Bradford pear across from our house is not quite as large, but it has seen some wear, including being run into by a car at one time. About half of this tree broke off in a storm making it very damaged looking, but it grew back and now it is quite full again.

Bradford pear at Satinwood Dr. and River Birch  Aug. 2, 2014

The many branched trunk on the Satinwood Bradford pear

A back view of the regrown trunk years after a large segment of the tree split off.

Leaves are shiny dark green with a little curl at the edges

Closeup of the leaves showing a fine serration

I will try to revisit these trees next spring and get some flowering pictures.