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Nashi pear
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Rosaceae Subfamily: Maloideae Genus: Pyrus Species: P. pyrifolia
Binomial name
Pyrus pyrifolia (Burm.) Nak.

The nashi pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, is sometimes called the Asian pear. It has been also called the Japanese pear, Korean pear or Taiwan Pear, as well as sand pear, apple pear, bapple, papple, and bae, from the Korean 배 or li (梨) in Chinese. In India is it called nashipati and in Bangladesh and Nepal it is called nashpati. Nashi pears are widely grown for their sweet fruit, a popular food in East Asia. They are sweet on the tree and are eaten crisp or else bletted.

Nashi pears generally are not baked in pies or made into jams because they have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, very different from the buttery European varieties. It is not a cross between apples and pears, as common names like apple pear may suggest, but its shape and crisp texture are reminiscent of apples.^[1] They are commonly served raw and peeled.^[2]

The flowers are white with five petals; they flower around April in the northern hemisphere. They are a popular symbol of spring in East Asia, and are a common sight in gardens or the countryside with the pink or slightly purplish flowers of peach or plum trees.

See also the similar Chinese White Pear (Pyrus ×bretschneideri), grown mostly in China.

Culture

In Japan, nashi pears are harvested in Chiba, Ibaraki, Tottori, Fukushima, Tochigi, Nagano, Niigata, Saitama and other prefectures, except Okinawa. Nashi (ja:梨) may be used as an autumn kigo, or "season word", in writing haiku. Nashi no hana (pear flower) is also used as a kigo of spring.^{citation needed}

In China, they have been considered a popular and sacred fruit. Many popular sayings have come from them.^{citation needed}

In Korea, they are grown and consumed in great quantity. Many are exported to the U.S. and sold as gifts, touting the superior quality of pears grown on the peninsula versus those grown in Southern California. Imported pears tend to be quite large and very fragrant, and are carefully wrapped, allowing them to last several weeks or more in a cold, dry place, such as a storage.^{citation needed} In the South Korean city of Naju, there is a museum called The Naju Pear Museum and Pear Orchard for Tourists (나주배박물관 및 배밭 관광체험).[1]

Because of their relatively high price and the large size of the fruit of cultivars, the pears tend to be served to guests or given as gifts, or eaten together in a family context.

In cooking, ground pears are used in vinegar or soy sauce-based sauces as a sweetener, instead of sugar. They are also used when marinating meat, especially beef.

In Taiwan, nashi pears harvested in Japan have become luxurious presents since 1997 and their consumption has jumped.

In Australia nashi have been produced commercially over 25 years.

Cultivars

Cultivars are classified in two groups. Akanashi ('red pears') have brownish-yellow rinds. Most cultivars belong to it. Aonashi ('green pears') have yellow-green rinds. It has few cultivars, 'Nijisseiki' is only famous as an Aonashi cultivar. Nashi pears are usually cultivars of Yamanashi, wild Japanese pears whose fruits are inedible because they are small, hard and sour.

Important cultivars include:

• 'Kosui' (ja:幸水, Japan, 1959; the most important cultivar in Japan)[2],
• 'Hosui' (ja:豊水, Japan, 1972)[3]
• 'Nijisseiki' (ja:二十世紀, Japan, 1898; name means "20th century", also spelled 'Nijusseiki')[4]
• 'Niitaka' (ja:新高, ko:신고, Japan, 1927)[5]
• 'Shinko' (ja:新興, Japan, 1941)[6]
• 'Chojuro' (ja:長十郎, Japan, 1893?)[7]
• 'Okusankichi' (ja:晩三吉, ko:만삼길, Japan, native)[8]
• 'Imamuraaki' (ja:今村秋, ko:금촌추, Japan, native)[9]
• 'Whangkeum' (ko:황금, zh:黄金, Korea, 1984, 'Niitaka' x 'Nijisseiki')[10]

Gallery

A tree of Pyrus pyrifolia in bloom	Fruit on trees	'Kosui'	'Nijisseiki', a "green pear" variety
'Shinko' (left two), large 'niitaka' (right front), and 'la France' (European Pear)	From left, 'Shinko', two 'Ya Li' (Chinese White Pears), and 'Whangkeum' with an American quarter for size reference.	Peeled and sliced pear for serving	Yukhoe (seasoned raw beef in light soy sauce topped with egg yolk) surrounded by julienned pear.

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Pyrus pyrifolia

• Site of the Australian Nashi Growers Association
• GUIDELINES FOR THE CONDUCT OF TESTS FOR DISTINCTNESS, UNIFORMITY AND STABILITY - JAPANESE PEAR, The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, 1994-11-04.
• (Japanese) ニホンナシ育成品種の系統図 (Cultivar trees of Japanese pears), National Institute of Fruit Tree Science, Japan
• Shin Hiratsuka, Shao-Ling Zhang "Relationships between fruit set, pollen-tube growth, and S-RNase concentration in the self-incompatible Japanese pear" Scientia Horticulturae, 95 (4), 309-318 (2002).
• Carlos Castillo, Takeshi Takasaki, Toshihiro Saito, Shigemi Norioka, Tetsu Nakanishi "Clonlng of the S₈-RNase (S₈ allele) of Japanese Pear (Pyrus pylifolla Nakai)" Plant Biotechnology, 19 (1), 1-6 (2002).

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 1 September 2008, at 21:48.

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