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The Taiwan native pear ( Pyrus koehnei or Pyrus kawakamii ),
which is one of rare species due to great chance of grafting,
deforesting and hybridized by the introduced species, has
suffered the risk of genocide. Hayata (1911) found Pyrus
kawakamii in Nanto county. The specimen of P. kawakamii was
kept in Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. We found
that the characters of the specimen were different from the
descriptions of several literatures. Evenmore we couldn''t
find any native pear trees in the wkld all over the island.
Dr. Nee has taken ten yearsto look for it after Dr. Westwood''s
visit this island to get this evergreen pear in its native
locatio. Luckly, the suspected clones have been found in
Huey-Sun Forest area managed by National Chung Hsing
University. It is one of the most evergreen with leaf margin
coriaceous, style 3∼4, fruuit dimater 1.09 ± 0.08 cm, sepal
decidous, similar to the original specimen kept in Taiwan
Forestry Research Institute and Pyrus koehnei introdued from
pear germplasm repository in Covallis, OR USA. In addition to
morphological studies, biochemical analysis including isozymes
and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) had been used to identify
the suspected clones. Pyrus calleryana, Pyrus koehnei, Pyrus
pyrifolia, Pyrus communis and some local hybridis were also
test to verify the relationships among pear species. However,
we conclude that the evidences of botanical & biochemical
analysis support the suspected clones belong to the population
of P. koehnei.
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