Vermillion Pear

Pyrus cinnabarina - Vermillion Pear

The Vermillion Pear owes its name to the scarlet hue it takes on in the sun: a wash of vibrant vermillion that ignites its golden skin and distinguishes it from all other summer varieties.

From mid-August, this elongated pear reveals its unique character: a slender silhouette, a crisp flesh bursting with sweet water, and above all, this changing coat where the large green dots breaking the skin turn bistre-colored against a red background, like so many watercolor touches.

The pear tree that bears it, of ordinary size, forms a beautiful open-grown tree and a very regular spindle. It fruits abundantly, both on seedling and quince rootstock, and offers ripe fruits for over a month.

Its buds, some vertical, others horizontal, are of medium strength, geniculate, a reddish-brown, sometimes ash-colored, marked with numerous lenticels.

The leaves, generally small and narrow, are distinguished by a midrib often red underneath. Each fruit bud gives rise to eight or ten flat flowers 4 centimeters wide, borne on slender, downy peduncles.

The fruit, very elongated, measures 9 to 12 centimeters high and 6 centimeters in diameter at its widest point. It significantly decreases in size towards the stem, which is somewhat fleshy, quite thick, stiff, and obliquely inserted. The belly is located near the other end, where the slightly sunken eye is surrounded by unequal ribs. The bumpy surface first shows numerous green dots, then turns greenish-yellow at maturity: the large dots, as they open, take on a brown color, while the side exposed to the sun becomes covered with a vibrant vermillion.

The white flesh, crisp and slightly stony, releases abundant, sweet, delicately fragrant, and very pleasant water. This pear can be enjoyed from August 15th until October.

This plate is taken from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.

As an anecdote, this plate was used by Salvador Dali for his lithography series 'Flordali, les Fruits' in 1969.