Details for: PI 542037, Pyrus ×phaeocarpa Rehder, P. x phaeocarpa

Distribution: This is an extremely variable type. It is native to northeastern China. I found it in the foot hills and mountains to the west and north of Peking. Mr. F.N. Meyer had found it in the mountains in Poshan in central Shantung Province. The trees are comparatively rare and usually occur as isolated specimens. This type has given rise to a small number of cultivated varieties, and to a good many seedlings which are grown in a limited way in the orchards of North China. All of these varieties and cultivates seedlings pass under the general name 'Tang Li'. Only one of these, the Tang Li grown at Malanyu and in the Panshan district is really worthy of a varietal name. It is medium to large in size, russet in color, with hard flesh, and of poor quality.

Botany: After a careful study in the field in north China, and of the seedlings grown from it at this Experimental Station, I am of the opinion that this is not a distinct or well-defined species, but that it is simply a group of hybrids between other species. The following facts support this view: It is var more variable in form of tree, character of branches, character, form and margin of leaf, size, form, and character of furit, and number of seed cells, than any distinct species of Pyrus that I have studied. This group includes forms which in general can be classed as intermediate between P. betulaefolia and P. ussuriensis... The best evidence of hybridity, however, is revealed in the seedlings of this type. A considerable number of seedlings have been grown from three distinct and typical strains in this group... In each lot part of them resemble the seedlings of P. ussuriensis, part those of P. betulaefolia, and part are intermediate between these two species. -- F.C. Reimer. 1919. Report of a trip to the Orient to collect and study Oriental Pears.

This clone came from the Southern Oregon Experiment Station, and is probably a seedling from Reimer's collection in China.