Pyrus

A pyramidal-to-rounded deciduous flowering tree once planted everywhere as a fast, tidy street and lawn tree (above all the 'Bradford' cultivar), prized for a smothering cloud of white early-spring flowers, glossy summer leaves, and reliably brilliant red-to-purple fall color. Plotwright does not recommend planting it. It is now a recognized INVASIVE that is banned or being phased out in a growing number of states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and others) because cross-pollinated cultivars produce fertile seedlings that escape into dense, thorny wild thickets that smother native plants. The flowers also smell unpleasantly fishy up close, and 'Bradford' has notoriously weak branch unions that split apart in storms by 15-25 years old. Choose a native flowering tree instead — serviceberry (Amelanchier) or eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) give you the same spring show without the ecological cost.

The common pear of the produce aisle — a deciduous Rosaceae fruit tree from southern Europe and southwestern Asia that is the parent of most named pears, including Bartlett, Anjou, and Comice. Aromatic, five-petaled creamy-white spring flowers give way to the familiar pear-shaped edible fruit, ripening from mid summer to fall on glossy dark-green foliage that turns red and yellow before leaf drop. Grown almost entirely for its fruit rather than as an ornamental, and notoriously susceptible to fireblight.