The leaves of the pear tree have serrated margins. The flower has five petals and five carpels and is generally white. The flower is perfect, meaning that both male and female parts are present. The fruit is classified as accessory since much of the wall is the fleshy receptacle. The grittiness of the fruit is caused by the presence of minute stone cells or schlerenchyma tissue.
Propagation is done by seeds or grafting. The dwarf pear is grafted onto a slow growing rootstock such as quince. Besides using the fruit as food, man extracts oil from the seeds.
A drink called perry is made from the fruit juice.
