Glossary · Perry
Pyrus communis
Latin. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Definition
The European pear, the species to which almost all perry pears and dessert pears belong. Perry cultivars are selections within it, not a separate species.
- Subject
- Perry
- Language
- Latin
In more detail
Wild and semi-wild forms of Pyrus communis, along with local wild pears, contributed to the perry pear population by chance seedlings in hedgerows. That is why so many perry pears are single-parish finds rather than deliberate breeding.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Perry
Perry pear
A pear cultivar grown for fermentation rather than for eating, characterised by high tannin, high acid or both, small size, and flesh too hard and astringent for the table.
Perry
Pyrus nivalis
The snow pear, a species with felted grey foliage used for perry and pear must in Austria and central Europe, and occasionally crossed into perry pear populations further west.
Fruit
Wilding
A tree grown from a chance seedling rather than grafted from a known cultivar, and the fruit it bears. Wildings supplied much of the fruit in old hedgerow and farm orchards.
Fruit
Malus domestica
The cultivated apple, the species to which all cider apple cultivars belong. It is a hybrid complex rather than a clean wild species, which is why its botanical name has repeatedly been revised.
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Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Perry Pears
L. C. Luckwill and A. Pollard (eds), published for the National Fruit and Cider Institute by the University of Bristol, 1963 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25 · covers 1963
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library, which records the work as Luckwill, 1963, published for the National Fruit and Cider Institute by the University of Bristol. The catalogue entry names Luckwill alone where the standard citation names Luckwill and Pollard as joint editors; CiderHQ keeps both names and records the discrepancy rather than silently following one catalogue. This is the foundational descriptive work on English perry pears and the ancestor of most later variety lists. No copy was opened: it is sixty years old, out of print, and held in research libraries rather than in open digital collections.
GRIN-Global germplasm database — Malus and Pyrus
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24