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Deer Meadow Bonsai

Mame Nashi - Dwarf Asian Pears

Asian Pear Fruit

Size - less than 1/2 " 8/30/05

Dwarf Asian Pear, left, Misc. Crab Apples, right

For ten years I grew trees that I purchased as Malus Sieboldeii, Toringo Crab Apples. I wired and pruned the trees, then grew them in my fields for many years. I pruned them hard enough that they never flowered. I dug the trees in 2003 & put them in bonsai pots in 2004 & 2005 and started selling them.

I noticed an article in Bonsai Sekai magazine that showed trees just like my "Toringos", so I asked a Japanese-American friend to translate it to see if they were Toringo Crabs. He said the trees in the article were asian pears!!!

What a shock! I contacted the nursery that sold the trees to me, but they were of no help. I searched the web, and my friend searched Japanese web sites to look for my trees. My trees are similar to pyrus calleryana, but dwarfer. A Japanese site states that there are many varieties of mame nashi and that pyrus calleryana is one of them.

I looked at various cultivars of calleryana growing in 4" liners at a local nursery. The fruit is similar, but the plant is more vigorous, has much longer petioles, larger leaves and the fruit is on longer stems than mine.

They surely are dwarf asian pears, but the exact variety may never be known, so I am just going to call them Asian Pears (mame nashi)until I get better information.

Measurements made in August 2005 from potted trees and one tree growing in the field:

Fruit: .347" to .424" in diameter x .406" to .496" long. The size varies on a given plant, some fruit were much smaller than those measured

Leaves: 2.042" to 2.698" long x .760" to 1.562" wide. Petioles .624" to 1.112" long. .