Pyrus amygdaliformis Vill.

A small tree occasionally 20 ft or more high, or a large rounded shrub; branches sometimes terminated by a spine; young shoots slightly woolly at first. Leaves very variable in shape and size; oval, ovate, or obovate, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, the margins very slightly round-toothed; covered with silky hairs when young, but becoming glabrous and lustrous above, and almost or quite glabrous beneath; stalks slender, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long. Flowers white, 1 in. across, produced in April in corymbs 11⁄2 to 2 in. across, carrying eight to twelve flowers; calyx white, woolly. Fruits rather orange-shaped, 3⁄4 in. long, 1 in. wide, yellowish brown, produced on a short, thick stalk.

Native of S. Europe, especially in the countries bordering the northern shores of the Mediterranean. It has no particular merit in the garden except that in age it makes a quaint and picturesque tree; from its ally, P. salicifolia, it differs in its nearly glabrous leaves.

There is an example at The Grange, Benenden, Kent, measuring 41 × 6 ft at 3 ft (1972).