Ever walk past a beautiful, white-flowered tree and then notice an unpleasant smell? You probably stumbled upon the Bradford pear tree.

Once one tree gets fire blight, it becomes easy to transmit to nearby pear trees and other plants in the rose family, such as apples, crabapples and roses. Get Inside Voices newsletter.

Callery pear aka Bradford pear trees are an eco disaster that Ohio banned because they ruin the ecosystem. Here's why and what you can plant instead.

“The idea was they could possibly breed the two trees together and get a fruiting pear tree that showed good resistance to this fire blight disease,” Macy said.

The first broad introduction of the Callery pear in the U.S. was in 1916 after pear orchards in Oregon were ravaged by a bacterial disease known as fire blight. Their Callery cousins were offered ...

Spotting the signs of this disease early is the key to keeping fire blight from spreading — not only through the infected tree, but to nearby plants. These bacteria spread most efficiently when the ...

Dear Neil: I have a 6-year-old pear tree that has fire blight. I have two other pear trees and three apples. How can I keep the one tree alive, and what can I do to prevent spread of the disease ...

Q: I have a 6-year-old pear tree with fire blight. I have two other pear trees and three apples. How can I keep the one tree alive, and what can I do to prevent spread of the disease?

Isolates related to the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora were identified by methods of hypersensitivity, pathogenicity, and FLASH-PCR diagnostics. Of the 156 isolates of microorganisms isolated ...