Pyrus syriaca Boiss.
Eng.: Syrian pear. Spa.: Peral sirio. Fre.: Poirier de Syrie. Ara.: Kummatra, enzas.
Shrub or tree, deciduous, hermaphrodite, up to 10 m in height, ramose, slightly spiny. Trunk generally well defined, slightly tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, fissured longitudinally. Branches of a few years grey to reddish-brown, glabrous; younger branches a little hairy. Leaves (2.5-10 × 0.7-3 cm in trees in Syria; usually 4-7 × 1-3 cm in Tunisia) solitary, alternate, or grouped in fascicles, oval-lanceolate, lanceolate or oblanceolate, acute, attenuate or rounded at the base, serrulate-crenulate margin, glabrescent when young, glabrous when adult, bright green on the upper side and slightly lighter and matt on the underside. Petiole well developed. Inflorescence corymbiform, with peduncles 1-5 cm long. Flowers 2.5-3 cm in diameter. Calyx with 5 small sepals, green, triangular-lanceolate, pubescent on the outside and tomentose inside. Petals 5, white, from suborbicular to obovate, very narrowed at the base, which is hairy, hirsute. Stamens 20-30, with red anthers. Styles 5. Fruit a small pear (pome), of about 3 cm, subglobose, with long (about 5 cm) and robust peduncle.
Flowering:
March to April.
Fruiting:
August to October.
Habitat:
Forests, in humid to subhumid environment, rarely in semiarid areas, with mild climate.
Distribution:
SE Mediterranean. Cyprus, Syria, Armenia and Kurdistan. In North Africa there is a small population between cork oak (Quercus suber) forests from northern Tunisia (between Mateur and Nefza).
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, although it is very rare in North Africa. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Tunisia it is included in its List of native species that are rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources 19-July-2006).