Herb: Indian Wild Pear


Latin name: Pyrus pashia


Synonyms: Pyrus kumaoni, Pyrus variolosa


Family: Rosaceae (Rose Family)



Medicinal use of Indian Wild Pear:

The juice of the ripe fruit is used in the treatment of diarrhoea.

Description of the plant:



Plant:
Deciduous
Tree

Height:
9 m
(30 feet)

Flowering:
April

Habitat of the herb:

Shrubberies in the Himalayas to 2700 metres.

Edible parts of Indian Wild Pear:

Fruit - raw or cooked. Up to 2.5cm in diameter. The fruit is usually bletted, but even then it is not sweet. Tasty when fully ripe, even when dried. Our experience is that the fully ripe fruit has a reasonable flavour and, when bletted, is sweet and very pleasant. A mature tree yields about 45kg of fruit per year. The fruit contains about 6.8% sugars, 3.7% protein, 1% ash, 0.4% pectin. Vitamin C is very low, about 1.2mg per 100g.

Other uses of the herb:

This plant can be used as a rootstock for the cultivated pear. Wood - compact fine grained, hard, durable, liable to split and warp during seasoning. Used for small implements, walking sticks and fuel.

Propagation of Indian Wild Pear:

Seed - best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe in the autumn, it will then usually germinate in mid to late winter. Stored seed requires 8 - 10 weeks cold stratification at 1°C and should be sown as early in the year as possible. Temperatures over 15 - 20°C induce a secondary dormancy in the seed. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in light shade in a cold frame or greenhouse for their first year. Plant them out in late spring or early summer of the following year.

Cultivation of the herb:

Shrubberies in the Himalayas to 2700 metres.

Known hazards of Pyrus pashia:

None known

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future.