Pears Pyrus communis in general abounded in the woods and forests of Central and South West Asia as we came out of the Levantine coastal corridor into the wide, wide world of South West Asia and beyond, so genetically, we are well familiar with this fruit and it's relatives. The ancestral  pear, Pyrus communis, grows wild in the forests of parts of Central and South West Asia. The 'European' pears' origin was therefore certainly in this general region, more or less, but it is not an unaltered descendant of P. communis. In the wild P. communis fruits, like most wild pear species, are barely edible - they are small, gritty, hard, astringent and sour. Other species, P. nivalis, the 'snow pear', and P. serotina, the 'Asian pear' are thought to have naturally crossed with P. communis to produce the early forms of the pear we know today. Other species may also have been involved, particularly P. ussuriensis. It was likely these natural hybrids that our ancestors and bears alike preferred.  Of the 22 odd species of Pyrus, only the 'European' (actually 'Central Asian'), the 'Asian' pear and the 'Ussuri' pear (P. ussuriensis) have been domesticated.

The pattern of selection and improvement is linked to sparing preferred trees as the forests were cut to make way for agriculture and herding; spreading of seed of selected trees in human manure; and, very recently, learning how to propagate individual plants by grafting twigs to seedlings grown for the purpose.

Pears from South West Asia spread with settlement and trade into Europe, probably fairly late, as they are not mentioned in the bible. They were highly regarded, both for wine making and as a fresh fruit - altho' even as late as the seventeenth century some writers were claiming raw pears were poisonous! From Europe they went to England, then in the boats of the colonizers to the American eastern seaboard and Australasia.

Today, the people of the North Caucasus mountains still collect wild Pyrus fruit, in spite of having ready access to a range of domestic fruit. And, in an echo from our ancient past,  no doubt fathers still show their children where 'the best pear trees are'.

Pears, like their relative the apple, have a good storage life. Unlike an apple, you can't pick up a fully colored, ripe, crisp pear and eat it. Pears have to ripen and soften - not too much, or they are floury. This, and the trees susceptibility to a particular bacterial disease, are the limiting factors in consumer acceptance and grower expansion.

Few fruit can match a perfumed, sweet, juicy and fine fleshed, almost buttery, pear. But this marriage of superior variety and exact point of ripeness is not always easy to find. New pears are being bred, using the 'Asian pear' as a parent. Hopefully, this will produce a fine fleshed, slightly crisp, perfumed and aromatic fruit that will be edible from the moment we select it from the supermarket display.