Shipova

Shipova is a very unusual and interesting hybrid between the common pear (Pyrus communis) and an ornamental rowan or whitebeam tree (Sorbus aria). It has excellent ornamental and fruit qualities.

The flowers are large by Sorbus standards but still look more like Sorbus flowers than pear blossom. They appear in May – towards the end of the European pear blossom season.

The fruits are borne in clusters, more reminscent of whitebeam berries than regular pears. Each fruitlet is a small golden round pear, about 4cm in size, with a pleasant sweet pear-like flavour and yellow flesh, which is crisp like an Asian pear. Unlike European pears Shipover pears should be left on the tree to ripen. Once harvested they can be eaten immediately or kept in a fridge for month or so – they tend to sweeten further with storage.

The leaves also show characteristics of both species, their size and the silvery leaf undersides being similar to those of whitebeams – and from a distance the tree looks much more like a whitebeam than a pear tree. The leaves turn golden yellow in the autumn.