Flowering pear trees are blooming across Lincoln, their white canopy framing Capitol Parkway and forming white clouds in Woods Park.
But you could mark them all with a big red "X."
Flowering pears — Bradford, Chanticleer, Cleveland Select, Callery — have been declared an invasive species in some states and are creating serious problems in places as close as Kansas City, Missouri.
And in Lincoln, city staff will not be planting many flowering pears on public land.
The Community Forestry Advisory Board has recommended removing flowering pear trees from the city’s street tree list and planting them sparingly, if at all, in parks and other public areas.
The city is not cutting down any flowering pear trees. The goal is to slow their spread until fruitless varieties are developed and commercially available, said Lynn Johnson, executive director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
People are also reading…
The flowering pear represents more than 7 percent of trees along city streets and in parks and golf courses.Ìý
Advisory group members said at a recent meeting they want to make sure that percentage doesn't grow.
The Bradford pear, with its beautiful spring flowers, was introduced in the 1930s and ’40s. It was sterile and thus could not reproduce by seed, said Lorri Grueber, community outreach forester.
But it was also not a strong tree, so the industry started working to make a better flowering pear, producing the Aristocrat, Cleveland Select and others. Those trees began to cross-pollinate and produce fruit, said Grueber.Ìý
Birds eat the fruit and leave their droppings in other places. And those seeds can grow dense, thorny thickets of trees.
“These trees just invade a territory, outcompeting other plants. It’s even giving eastern red cedar a run for its money in some areas," Grueber said.
The sale and planting of flowering pears has been banned in some states, including Ohio most recently. And the trees are very problematic as close as Kansas City, she said.
A single wild tree can spread quickly by seed and vegetative means, often forming dense thickets within several years and outcompeting native plants. In forested settings, it leafs out earlier than Nebraska's native trees, effectively shading out spring wildflowers, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Grueber has identified several groves in Lincoln, including near 14th and Yankee Hill, at 77th and West Denton, and on West Highlands Boulevard.
“It will take over. It is very good at getting the resources it needs,†she said.
Grueber said the trees this year will not be brilliant white. They will likely have a brown tinge because of the very cold weather several weeks ago.Ìý
That's good, because it helps convince people these are not the best tree to plant, she said.ÌýÂ
The flowering pear is on the state weed association watch list, said Brent Meyer, Lancaster County Weed Authority superintendent.
“We are going to be doing a statewide survey on it, so we know what we have,†he said.
A South Carolina landscape nurseryman has written a column, “The Curse of the Bradford Pear,†which has been reprinted across the country as this invasive tree moves into new territory.
The column, by Durant Ashmore, reads in part:
"Because of the cross-pollination problem, pear trees have now proliferated exponentially across our environment. And, to make matters worse, the evil offspring has reverted to the ancient Chinese Callery pears which form impenetrable thorny thickets that choke the life out of pines, dogwoods, maples, redbuds, oaks, hickories, etc.
"When you see those fields of white flowering trees, please don’t get giddy with excitement over pretty white flowers. What you are looking at are Callery pears destroying nature. Callery pears have 4-inch thorns. They can’t be mowed down. Those thorns will shred John Deere tractor tires. They can only be removed by steel-tracked dozers, decreasing the value of agricultural or forest land to the tune of $3,000 per acre.
"And, make no mistake about this. That solitary Bradford pear growing in your yard is what caused this problem. Your one tree has spawned hundreds of evil progeny. If you don’t believe that, just take a little ride, and notice all the white flowering trees blooming these days. The closer they are to 'ornamental' Bradford pear trees, the thicker they are."