Fruit tree ID needed

I've seen this tree bloom three times now, but this time it has set fruit (the last two years it was frozen or droughted, I think :).
This year it has fruit which looks like a pear (from 12 feet down on the ground). It bloomed the same time as my Callery pear, but they're white, not pink, and their fruits are tiny. These are 3/4-1", the same size as on my asian pear. The tree is about 30' tall, and not very wide. It's in a spot that I suspect once held a home, as there are daffodils back in the woods in the same area.
I posted on the plant ID thread, and thoughts tend towards peach, which is the one thing I'm pretty sure it is _not_. It has the little flower remains on the bottom like pears and apples, unlike the pointed ends of peaches and plums I'm growing. Leaves are also like pear and apple. It has a weeping growth pattern.
Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Margo

Could that be a peach tree?? It's looking peachy to me.

No, not a peach. Leaf shape is that of pear/apple, and the fruit is not similar. My peaches do not have the flower remnants on the bottom of the fruit, and this fruit does, like my pears and apples do.

Are the leaves fuzzy? The quince is a pome fruit.

LTilton it doesn't look like my quince. They leaf out before they bloom and the bloom is mostly white. If it is not a peach I bet it is some kind of flowering ornamental tree.
RED

I wonder if it could be one of those ornamental/jelly type of crabapples? Bigger fruits than the modern crabapples, but not the size of an eating apple. I wondered about the seckel pear, since those are also tiny, but probably bigger than 3/4 to 1 inch long. Do the fruits drop when ripe? Have you cut into one? Does it have those little granule things in the flesh like pears have?

Ah, but the 3/4 to 1 inch if not mature size. It is the same size as my asian pear is at this time. The problem is that I've never seen a mature fruit. The weather hasn't allowed that until this year.The leaves are not fuzzy.
I seem to have this problem with a number of things on this property. I haven't been able to ID much of anything :(. I'll keep watching......

Thanks anyway:)

Ah, got ya. I thought the 1 inch was mature. Interesting. I have tried to find any evidence of pear tree varieties that have pink blooms and I'm not coming up with any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. There are a number of quince that do come out pear-shaped and definitely have the flower remnants on the bottom. I have quince that flower white and red, but pink ones seem to exist as well.

Keep us updated! I'm intrigued!

But quince should have fuzzy leaves.

There are different type of quince and not all have fuzzy leaves, I don't *think* -- but of course I could be wrong.

My "Chaenomeles" shrub quince definitely does not have fuzzy leaves. I am not sure about the tree types.

These descriptions came from the North American Fruit Explorer site:

The Cydonia oblonga is the fuzzy quince originating in the area of the middle and near East. It is still cultivated there as well as the Mediterranean area and southern Europe. When cooked the juice and pulp have a pink color. The fruit size varies according to the variety, but averages are 250 to 750 grams. Reported to grow in all the 48 lower states, it grows into a small tree, usually less than 25 feet and can be trained to a spreading form. It is not thorny, it is self-fertile so only one variety is needed for fruiting. There are many named varieties. It is highly susceptible to fire blight and quince rust.

Pseudocydonia sinensis is a native of China. It has a rather large fruit, 250 to 900 grams. It has a smooth skin and the pulp is more firm than the C. oblonga. The tree grows 20 to 25 feet and becomes twiggy and needs yearly pruning for esthetic reasons. The bark begins to exfoliate as the tree becomes older, much like crepe myrtle. The fruit ripens in late October and November and is the limiting factor for planting north of USDA zone 6. It grows from Florida to New York. This species is less susceptible to fire blight and quince rust and although it is attacked, it suffers less damage than C. oblonga. At least 2 varieties should be planted as some are not self-fertile.

Chaenomeles are also known as quince. There are several species of Chaenomeles and are usually used as flowering shrubs, less than six feet and grown into hedges. Most of these shrubs are thorny but there are thornless varieties. This is the first shrub to bloom, as early as late January in zone 7 and 8 and will have colors from white through pink to dark red, lasting until late spring. These shrubs are not self-fertile so two varieties are needed to produce fruit. The fruits are small, 50 to 75 grams and do not have as many uses as the larger fruits, but are used to make a tart jelly. The leaves on all Chaenomeles are serrated and spiny and usually rounded.

Chaenomeles cathayensis is also a native of China. It grows taller than the flowering shrubs and is more tree form to 20 feet. Its leaves are more narrow-than-long, 2.5 x 5 cm, serrated and spiny. This species has long thorns. It has a fruit that is reported to mature near 900 grams. It too is not self-fertile so two varieties of C.cathayensis are needed to produce fruit or it will cross with the lesser shrubs of Chaenomeles.

I wonder, could it be a persimmon or a medlar?

Not a persimmon, or at least not a native, I have those as well, and they are just beginning to leaf out. I'll investigate a medlar.
Thank you so much CMoxon for doing all that research, somehow it never comes up that well for me *G*. I have several things to check for now, and will try to do so today. I have peeps due, so may not be today, but I sure will follow up on the detective work.

Thank you, we'll figure it out, and then I'll be asking what to do with them :)

Margo

Ooooh, good luck with the peeps! I have salmon faverolles hatching today! First one just hatched this morning!

AAAARRRGH!!!! Mine SF didn't arrive, nor did my Cuckoo Marans. Sob!!! I'm SOOOOOO jealous.
I'm going to go cuddle my Turkens. They're my all time faves, anyway....

sniffle sniff sniff......

Oops....sorry. Only 1 hatched so far.

Hope they did well:) I seem to get lost watching the babies all zoom around. Fortunately, they've quieted down a bit *G*

My guess would be medlar. But thats all it is, a guess. Keep us updated.

Lena

So far it seems to be paralleling the apples/crab-apples. I'll keep watching:)

Thanks!

I once bought an old house and it had a pear tree that the seller bragged about. It was very attractive and loaded with white blooms every spring. It had a weird trunk that seemed made up of several smaller ones grown together, beginning a foot or so off the ground. One limb would bear large pears but the rest of the tree would be loaded with tiny little useless fruits that I think were smaller than an inch. My uncle explained to me that the rootstock had over grown the good grafted part and that the single limb bearing large fruit was all that was left of the graft. He said it could be saved with severe surgery and new grafts but I never messed with it. Maybe that's what is going on with your mystery.

Interesting point twiggybuds. Quince is usually used as a rootstock for pears. And quince can have pink blossoms. Is there any evidence on the trunk of a failed or overpowered graft?

My old pear was just the opposite. The large fruit was the rootstock, and the Callery (meant for blooms, thus the small fruit) Pear was the one that was intended to exist. I can;'t get the big ones to ripen, and had a thread about them on here, last year. I just can't seem to ID much *G*.
At this point, the fruit is somewhere between the size og my apples and crabapples. I keep checking, and I'm cutting my was closer, bit by bit.....:)

OK, I gotta ask - what are these peeps you guys are hatching? I first assumed baby chicks but the names don't seem to match, not that I know much about chickens.
Paul

pbryley - yes, they are all baby chicks. Salmon faverolles, Marans and turkens are all breeds of chicken. Turkens have naked necks and look kind of like turkeys, which is why they got that name. Salmon faverolles are a lovely light brown colored chicken with salmon-y colored accents, and marans can be different colors (cuckoo marans, wheaten marans, black copper marans, etc) but they all lay really dark brown eggs - almost the color of chocolate.

And there are Ameracaunas (also known as Easter Eggers because they lay different colors (blue, green, pink or olive), Cochins (of assorted colors and sizes, but all fluffy), White-faced Black Spanish, Australorps, Light Brahmas and Silkies, at least at my house.
So many chickens, so little time....

And, to go back on topic, The little fruits still sem to be growing, I'll chack on them today :)

Paging catmad.

Yes, killdawabbit? Can I help??

What did it turn out to be? You said it had fruit.

I still haven't a clue. The access to that is a bit restricted by overgrown (and unproductive but full of thorns) blackberries, so I think I just gave it up. Thanks for the reminder, I'll go hack a path to the tree...

I also need to figure out my "Callery" pear tree. It got burned by the power lines and cut back radically, and the one brach that seemed to have "real" pears (and is probably from the root stock) is now several branches, I think.

Time for a fruit foray :)

When my Dad inherited my grandfather's house, there was a "wild" pear growing in the pasture. It made full-size pears, but they tasted bad (extremely sour). We tried it as jelly, but it didn't have enough flavor other than sour for cooking. We finally cut it down. So it is possible to get some weird crosses and throw-backs.

These don't have much taste at all, but they may never have ripened. There weren't many, but after the main tree got "trimmed" atfer the power lines set it on fire. there seem to be more branches coming from low down, and that's where the big pears are.
We'll see.

I have a medlar grafted onto quince root stock. The fruit looks like a huge, brown rose hip to me and stays on the tree at least until the first frost. That is when I pick them and when they blett (rot) I make a thick preserve out of them. Yum! But your tree looks nothing like my medlar and the medlar blooms really late - after the leaves come out.

Margo,

Does your tree look like this one in the link?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/151964/

This may be a Prunus species much like many grown in China, Taiwan and Japan. They have flowers that open from Dec to Feb and bear small fruits called "ume" in Japan or "meizhe" in China. The fruits are candied or pickled.

Li-An

Thanks Li-An, but no. The tree is probably old, and forgotten. The former owners of the home don't remember it having edible fruit, but they did say that their Mom used it for something. Unfortunately, no-one remember what :)

Hawthorne?