Directory of pear varieties

This gallery of photographs illustrates the pear's great range of forms and colours found in its hundreds of varieties.

Each photograph attempts to capture the external key features that define the variety - its appearance, shape and some notion of size. Most of the images also try to show the nature of the stalk and its cavity and, at the opposite end of the fruit, the eye and its basin. These are described in detail in The Book of Pears, together with other features that characterise the variety and underpin its value: taste, texture, season, history and information relating to its cultivation, plus a Pear Key to help track down an unknown pear. Pictures of almost all of the varieties in The Book of Pears are shown on this website. All of them grow and were photographed in the Defra National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent, south east England (except where noted).

Putting a name to a pear

Here are some examples of the main features used to identify a pear variety that you can find in the Directory images.