Callery Pear: Cut Them Down

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Scott Vogt

Originally posted on May 1, 2019

This is such an important topic and such a huge problem that we thought it is worth sharing again.

Several years ago, I noticed something disturbing was happening to our prairie reconstruction. Small little trees were popping up throughout the original prairie planting. I could not figure out where they were coming from, but they looked like pear tree saplings. It wasn’t until I saw a large white blooming Callery pear tree in the spring that it all came together.

Callery Pear

Although the flower clusters are beginning to fade, Callery pear’s white blooms are most obvious in the spring. We planted them for their explosion of spring blooms and nice fall color, but this ornamental tree has become highly invasive. It threatens native wildlife habitat and has become a nuisance for private and public landowners.

This once favorite tree was planted extensively throughout the U.S. The Callery pear – also referred to as Bradford pear – formed a nice pyramid to rounded shape. The vertical limbs made it a nice median and street tree as well, ultimately reaching 30 to 40 feet tall and 20 -30 feet in spread. This Chinese native was a harbinger of spring for decades with its prolific white blooms. An added bonus was its reddish-purple fall color.

Despite all those positives, these trees have become problematic. This non-native, flowering tree was assumed to be sterile, but it is not. It now cross-pollinates with other cultivars of Callery pear to produce hybrid offspring. The fruit is ingested by wildlife and birds that spread the seeds across the countryside and into your yards. It is aggressively displacing native vegetation, causing economic and environmental damage.

The message to property owners is to remove the trees now while you can easily identify them in bloom. We need to keep them from spreading to native areas. It doesn’t hurt my feelings to see them go, because they are a weak-wooded, thorny mess.

Native alternatives to Callery Pear:

Eastern Rudbud (Cercis canadensis)
Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea or Amelanchier ‘Robin Hill’)
American Plum (Prunus americana)
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)
Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)
Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum)

*Blackhaw Viburnum fruit and fall color*

We have cut down the culprit, but still have a bunch more saplings to remove this summer. There was one more larger tree that was cut down near the Visitor Center. We will continue to eradicate these unwanted invaders in our prairies. It will take time but I believe we can get the upper hand. I would encourage you to remove them in your landscape as well and replace them with native trees. Callery pear has no place in the landscape anymore.

*Image Source

Here is additional information on Callery pear trees from the Kansas Forest Service.

Plant Apologies: Campsis radicans

Posted on April 5, 2023 by Katie Schmidt

I have accidentally been spreading some plant slander, and now it is time to apologize. Sometimes even we plant people get it very, very wrong! And so today’s post is all about Campsis radicans, aka the trumpet vine.

*Illustration by Mary Vaux Walcott, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons*

For years I have been railing against this plant.

“Ridiculously aggressive!”

“Impossible to get rid of!”

“It’s sold at these big box stores because they don’t care about the environment!”

While those things might be true in their own way, they leave out an important fact: It is NATIVE. Yes, Campsis radicans is a native vine that is found from Maine to Florida and west to Kansas. I have said many times that is was invasive, imported from far flung lands, and is a plague upon our forests. And boy was I misinformed. Remember, the word ‘invasive’ really should be reserved for non-native plants that have reproduced in and disturbed the local ecosystem. Aggressive is a better, more accurate way to describe a plant’s behavior if it spreads readily, but is native to our area. Invasive, as a horticultural term, means something about its origins and introduction into a new place.

Many Good Traits

This plant blooms July through August, attracting a whole host of long-tongued pollinators. Blooms can be red to orange, and its slightly sweet scent is great for trellises near the patio. It grows quickly, so can create fast shade over a pergola. The foliage is attractive and lush, and serves as a host plant for several species of moth.

*The showy flowers attract bees and hummingbirds. Photo by Rob Hille, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*

Some Not So Good Traits

My information about its origins was bad, but my warnings about its behavior were spot on. It is fast growing to a fault, and can be seen toppling fences and commandeering telephone poles. To keep this thing in control means relentless pruning. Growing right before your eyes, trumpet vine can easily climb 10 feet or more in a summer. It does not play well with others, and will send runner roots out into nearby garden areas. And don’t forget its seeds! A single pod can have 600+ seeds.

So, Campsis, I am sorry. You are a native vine with your own beautiful and ecosystem-sustaining qualities! Though I will still keep it out of my own garden, I can see it has a rightful place in a forest edge or hedgerow, and I will never call it invasive again!

O Cedar Tree, O Cedar Tree

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Katie Schmidt

Here is a repost from a few years ago about using local cedar trees for your Christmas decoration this year, for the ecological benefits and the fun folksy style!

This past weekend I cut down a red cedar to use as my Christmas tree; just the right shape and size and with the right amount of character. I feel great about cutting one of these trees out of the wild (an Arboretum staffer condoning tree felling? Yes!). Red cedars are beautiful, strung with lights and tinsel, but they have become a real pest in the Great Plains ecosystem. Here are a few reasons to skip the plastic tree or spruce farm and simply cut yourself a cedar!

Any Christmas tree, cedar or artificial, can benefit from some ecologically conscious decorations. Dried grass and seed heads of prairie plants look magical amongst warm white lights, but are biodegradable.

Cedars have become invasive

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is native to Kansas and much of central and eastern North America. Native though they are, the USDA labels cedars as invasive, and rightfully so. Too many pastures and meadows are overgrown with cedars, choking out native grasses and wildflowers. Without natural wildfires and regular controlled burns, cedars have been allowed to flourish in places that historically would not have been suitable. The tallgrass prairie is one of the most rare and endangered ecosystems in the world, and the invasion of cedars upon open grasslands decreases species richness, changes soil composition and even threatens indigenous wildlife. If you are a landowner looking to do maintenance of your grassland or clear it of cedar trees, Dyck Arboretum can provide helpful information.

The woody plants in this photo have completely run amuck in a landscape that should be dominated by grass. Randy Rodgers has a wonderful essay here on the impacts of trees encroaching on the prairie.

Cedars degrade the prairie ecosystem

Grassland dependent birds, insects and small mammals become displaced or outcompeted when red cedars populate formerly open land. The University of Nebraska has compiled a lot of data on this subject at The Eastern Red Cedar Science Literacy Project, where you can find informative and alarming tidbits like:

“Grassland birds are the most rapidly declining avian guild in North America (Fuhlendorf et al. 2012) and are rarely observed once juniper exceeds 10% of land cover (Chapman et al. 2004).” (Twidwell et al. 2013)

and…

“An increase in overstory cover from 0% to 30% red cedar can change a species-rich prairie community to a depauperate community dominated by 1 (small mammal) species, Peromyscus leucopus.” (Horncastle et al. 2005)

Endangered and vulnerable species like the American burying beetle and the greater prairie chicken are only further threatened by the turnover of grassland to cedar forests. Cedars do have redeeming qualities – winter shelter and forage for birds, drought tolerance and erosion control. Red cedars certainly have their place in a hedgerow or small grove, but should be carefully limited from spreading.

Cedar trees make prescribed burning a little tricky, and can exacerbate wildfires by sending up flames much higher than other grassland plants do.

*My coworker Brad has some great bumper stickers that encourage regular prescribed burns to prevent cedar overgrowth.*

Cedars are a ‘green’ choice

For all the aforementioned reasons, cutting a cedar for a Christmas tree is already a very ecologically conscious decision. But there is more! Unlike plastic trees, cedars are biodegradable and can be used for firewood or garden mulch. Also note that conventional Christmas tree farms providing spruce or firs require lots of resources:

clearing/agricultural development of land
years of regular water input
pesticides to keep needles bug free
shipping and fuel costs to get the trees to distributors around the country

Why don’t we skip all that frivolous resource usage and cut down some of these pesky cedars instead? You can feel good about a tree that’s low on carbon waste but high in old-fashioned, folksy quality.

Get permission from a farmer, landowner or your county land management officials before you start cutting. They will likely be happy to get rid of one, and you may get it for free (more money for gifts, yippee!) and enjoy a lovely, cedar-scented home this holiday.