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Callery pears: An invader ‘worse than murder hornets!’

CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) CORRECTS DATE OF DEATH TO 1918, NOT 2018 - This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 1918, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) FILE - A Bradford pear tree, damaged by ice following an overnight winter storm, is seen in Wichita, Kan., on April 10, 2013. Their beauty and supposed sterility made Bradford pears a widely popular ornamental, but the deep Vs formed by some branches turned out to make them prone to breaking after 20 to 30 years. They also wound up pollinated by other ornamental varieties of Callery pears and turning highly invasive. (Mike Hutmacher/The Wichita Eagle via AP) FILE - Snow covers blossoms on a Bradford Pear tree in Roanoke, Va., Wednesday, March 21, 2018. Their beauty and supposed sterility made Bradford pears a widely popular ornamental, but they wound up being pollinated by other ornamental varieties of Callery pears and turning highly invasive. (Erica Yoon/The Roanoke Times via AP) This photo provided by David R. Coyle shows invasive Callery pear trees blooming along Georgia Higway 441 near Nicholson, Ga., on Feb. 21, 2019. Georgia is among more than 30 states where the trees have been reported as invasive. (David R. Coyle via AP) In this drone photo provided by Jerrod Carlisle, invasive Callery pear trees bloom white among 29,000 still leafless native trees on his land in Otwell, Ind., on March 26, 2020. In the area where there are only native trees, he has eliminated the invaders by cutting them one by one and applying herbicide foam around the edge of each stump top. He believes the invasive trees sprouted from seeds produced by five trees -- three ornamentals and two that were supposed to bear edible pears. Indiana is among more than 30 states where Callery pears have been reported as invasive. (Jerrod Carlisle via AP) This photo provided by David R. Coyle, shows spiky invasive Callery pear saplings in a horse pasture near Woodruff, S.C., on Jan. 20, 2020. Those only a few months old can bear spurs that endanger tractor tires, says Coyle, an assistant professor in Clemson University's Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. (David R. Coyle via AP) A Callery pear tree is seen in Auburn, Ga., on Sunday, March 13, 2021. A stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape tree has become an aggressive invader, creating dense thickets that overwhelm native plants and bear four-inch spikes that can flatten tractor tires. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz) This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows an unidentified man looking toward dwarf Callery pears growing in arid soil on a 2,000-foot-high mountaintop in China on March 31, 1917. The location, described as "near Nan chang yen, Hupeh, China," may have been in Nanzhang county, Hubei. Now, ornamental varieties have crossbred and become invasive in at least 33 U.S. states. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows an unidentified man holding a spur of a large Callery pear tree next to a pine tree during an expedition to collect plants in China for the USDA, on March 31, 1917. The location, described as "near Nan chang yen, Hupeh, China," may have been in Nanzhang county in Hubei. "Very few trees find pine trees congenial mates, but this remarkable Calleryana pear occurs at times quite plentiful in open pine forests, on sterile mountain slopes," USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer wrote to his supervisor. Invasive varieties of Callery pear have been reported in at least 33 U.S. states. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) This photo made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, shows USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer on Mount Wutai, Shanxi, China, on Feb. 25, 1908. Meyer, who died in 2018, sent an estimated 2,500 species of plants, including his namesake Meyer lemon and Callery pears, to the United States. (Courtesy of USDA via AP) FILE - Daniel Patterson, a sophomore at John Handley High School, walks home from school below blooming Bradford pear trees on Wednesday, March 30, 2016, in Winchester, Va. Their beauty and supposed sterility made Bradford pears a widely popular ornamental, but they wound up being pollinated by other ornamental varieties of Callery pears and turning highly invasive. (Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star via AP) A callery pear is seen in Johns Creek, Ga. on Sunday, March 13, 2021. A stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape tree has become an aggressive invader, creating dense thickets that overwhelm native plants and bear four-inch spikes that can flatten tractor tires. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz)
Callery pears: An invader ‘worse than murder hornets!’