Those nasty trees that smell like rotting fish can no longer be bought, sold, or distributed by Missouri plant nurseries under a bill recently passed by the Missouri legislature.
The legislation, now awaiting the signature of Gov. Mike Kehoe, would ban nurseries from dealing in the Callery pear, as well as climbing euonymus, Japanese honeysuckle, sericea lespedeza, perilla mint, and burning bush, beginning in 2029.
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Sen. Mike Bernskoetter (R-Jefferson City), the bill’s sponsor, says constituents brought the issue to him. “The longer I looked into this issue the more it became clear it is a problem threatening our natural Missouri ecosystem,” he said in a statement. “Invasive plants are incredibly hard to combat and spread in such a way to block out our native plants. I am proud and pleased that on the last day of session we were able to see the House of Representatives pass SB 105 and send that legislation to the governor’s desk.”
Bernskoetter’s legislation comes after years of education on the part of the Missouri Prairie Foundation, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and others on the scourge of Callery pears, which were first introduced in the 1960s. In recent years, Callery pear buy-backs have spread to 17 municipalities around the state (including St. Louis).
Justine Kandra, a horticulturist with the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening, says the pear trees crowd out native plants. That’s been a big problem on the side of freeways, where they take over at the expense of wildflowers or native trees such as redbuds. “The more Callery pears there are, the fewer of those native plants,” says Kandra.
Meridith MacAvoy Perkins, the executive director of St. Louis-based Forest ReLeaf, agrees.
“They’re out-competing native landscapes, which in itself, from a biodiversity standpoint and forest health perspective, is really devastating,” she says. “But then the waterfall effect of when you don’t have a healthy forest, then you don’t have a healthy habitat for the wildlife that is there. You can’t support the caterpillars, that then can’t support the migratory birds.”
And that’s even as the trees’ weak wood makes them susceptible to damage from wind and ice, which can be a big problem for anything parked nearby. “They are just not very good trees,” says Kandra.
Ironically, Callery pears were originally brought here for their ornamental qualities, and despite numerous public awareness campaigns, many nurseries continue to stock them today. “It’s going to take a lot of work if we ever want to eradicate them, especially from high-quality natural areas,” Kandra says. “But it’s a start. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Perkins agrees. She notes that the legislation, while a big advance, actually represents something of a compromise: A step further would be designating an invasive species like the Callery pear “a noxious weed,” which would basically be a call by the state (which manages such designations) for its eradication on public land.
“Because they are so ubiquitous in our landscapes, there’s no way we were going to get them listed as noxious weeds,” she says. “The next best thing is to cease the sale.”
