The rare Plymouth pear bursting into full bloom in the city
IT is not the most inviting of settings for a national treasure – next to a vehicle depot in the shadow of a Plymouth multistorey car park – but at this time of year it is worth a visit if you happen to be passing.
And, as luck would have it, I had to stop off at Derriford Hospital last week and took the chance to stroll to the back of the Bircham multi-storey.
The side of the building is festooned with a fetching display of fragrant wisteria, but that was not the reason I had come.
Instead I was looking forward to revisiting a pear tree that I have only ever seen in the autumn, when it bears a crop of marblesized and inedible fruit.
And when I turned the corner it was a sight to behold, cloaked in white blossom. A real peach of a pear.
Only, this is no ordinary pear tree. It is one of Britain’s rarest trees, the Plymouth pear, named after the location where it was first discovered in the UK in 1870.
The hard little fruits and purplish twigs help distinguish the species from the domestic pear, and its blooms have been described as smelling like ‘decaying scampi’! I didn’t quite get that scent, though it was hard to tell as there was an overpowering whiff of cooked food from a nearby pizza takeaway.
The Plymouth pear has trouble producing viable seeds, so has remained very rare, with a few to be found in Truro and at other sites in Plymouth. I have heard it grows next to the Blitz-damaged shell of Charles Church, and certainly a similar-looking tree was in bloom when I passed by in heavy traffic on Friday. Nice to know that even city roundabouts and hospital car parks can hold precious rarities.