Cultivar Identification
Introduction
Each fruit tree produces fruits with specific characteristics.
This means that fruits provide clues about the possible variety name of a tree. This is a useful tool if you want to find out the cultivar name of a tree. (Advice: If you plant a new tree yourself, always put a sustainable label with the variety name on the tree!)
Johannes Herman Knoop (1706 – 1769) is considered the founder of pomology (= the study of fruit species). He was the first to start publishing overviews, synonym lists and accompanying scientific explanations of apples and pears from Dutch, German, English and French regions. This was followed by more extensive works, such as Pomologia (about apples and pears) and Fructologia (other fruit species). The fact that his works were highly regarded at the time is evident from the fact that they were also translated into German and French. His masterpiece Pomologia contains variety descriptions plus illustrations of fruits, of varieties that were widely grown at the time. Even 250 years after its publication, this standard work is still regarded as the ‘Bible for fruit growing’. Pomologia is still used to determine historical varieties, also internationally.
Pear
For the determination of pears, below are images of over 80 pears from Pomologia by Johannes Knoop. The images from the book have been separated, ‘digitally restored’ and placed in a frame, so that they can be compared more easily. To further facilitate the determination, the fruits have been arranged somewhat based on:
- fruit size
The pears are roughly divided into 4 series, with small to very large fruits. (Please note that there is overlap between the categories.) - appearance (colour and shape)
Within each series, fruits that resemble each other have been placed together as much as possible.
Tip: Don’t just look at the fruit, but also pay attention to the characteristics of the fruit stem (length, thickness, shape, angle of insertion).
Small
Medium
Large Pears
XL Pears
