San Jose, CA Street Tree ID

[_Keith]

Does anyone know the the ID of this tree?

[Jubaea]

See if Pyrus calleryana 'bradford' matches what you saw. It is a Pyrus with Fire Blight and 'bradford' is commonly planted.

[WestCoastGal]

Keith looks like one of the many Bradford Pear trees that our complex got stuck having as a city tree we all need to maintain. As you can tell I'm not a fan of it. It has its plus and minuses. It is planted all over the bay area, actually around the country in many states. Do some googling of it and read a bunch of reviews.

Developers and city planners fell in love with it a number of years ago and started using it all over. It goes fast and has nice green leaves during most of the year. It does drop them here in the bay area sometime in the winter, after halloween here. The leaves will turn fall colors here and is quite attractive at that time of year. With so many evergreens it's nice to get some fall foliage color. In the spring it gets white flowers all over and they decorate the lawns and sidewalks like fallen snow. Some people apparently say the tree gives off a malodorous scent (you'll laugh when you look this one up) during this time. Quite honestly I've never gotten close enough to detect it and given the description not inclined to do so.

Because it grows so fast it puts out lots of badly placed branches that as time goes on become quite heavy and susceptible to literally ripping off the tree and crashing down unexpectedly on whatever is below. This happened to a neighbor's tree near us. The neighbor across the street saw it happen and said no one was by it when it just sheared off taking half the trunk with it. Fortunately it didn't hit any pedestrians or parked cars in the street and because the debris landed in the street the city came and took care of what was in the street but the neighbor had to pay to have the rest cut down and removed. Said it was an unwelcome expense and given the size rather costly. Tree was something like 10-12 years old and not diseased. Just bad branch structure. This is about the age I have read when this happens. Proper trimming and thinning can help but still they can still suffer the same fate.

Another thing that plagues this tree here is fire blight. It is carried by birds and insects and typically is spread in the spring when it has rained and the temps get hot. Some people will try to pretreat their trees with a spray before they flower. One spring we had a lot of rain and then temps in the 80-90s and dozens of trees in our complex were afflicted. It is contagious and spreads easily. Diseased branches which dry up and tend to curl on the tips should be cut off and destroyed with pruning equipment disinfected after each cut. We lost several trees in the complex that year. People/cities/commercial properties seldom do proper pruning and treatment and you will usually see the trees with large sections of bronze dead branches and leaves on them before they die completely. This year a number of my neighbors trees are affected including our next door neighbors and just hope the tree falls in their yard when it comes down and not on our cars in the driveway.

I would think fire blight would easily spread in Florida given your humidity and temps. I'll come back and post some photos.

[WestCoastGal]

To show the growth first photo from 2004, second from 2013 which shows the flowering.

Typical split branches and trunk. Photo from 2013 from same development, trees in this section were planted a few years before above photos. Notice branch structure in general.

These were planted as street trees and next to areas where cars are typically parked throughout the day and night.

The fruit can be a problem, staining a bit on concrete walkways and driveways. I'll try to post a photo illustrating the fire blight issue.

[fastfeat]

Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'. As worthless a tree for CA as any developed. Nothing like promoting a tree with a genetic propensity to split apart because it literally cannot branch from more widely-spaced buds on the trunk. This is the same condition that occurs with Modesto ash (Fraxinus velutina 'Modesto').

[_Keith]

I thought it might be, but not flowering I was not sure as they look very different in form down here.

[Silas_Sancona]

Agree with both Debbie and Ken, not a great tree for CA and like Debbie had stated, trees around San Jose always had issues with Fire blight/ die-back. To add to this, when living in Kansas, these trees were notorious for being split to the ground during strong wind/ heavy Snow/ice storm events. Only Slippery Elm and Silver maples were more damage prone.

Spring flowers and fall foliage were it's only positives.


-Nathan-

Edited September 14, 2014 by Silas_Sancona