There seem to be 18 cultivars currently in ATP.
'Raja','Korean Giant','Yoinashi','Ichiban', 'Shinsui','Yakumo', 'Ya Li','Tsu Li','Siegyoku', 'Kikusui', 'Ishiiwase', 'Olympic', 'Shinko','Twentieth Century', 'Hosui', 'Shinseiki', 'Chojuro','Nijisseiki'.

A little off topic but chill hours might be something useful to maybe add to the DB in the future.

I have wondered if we should ever make a parent plant that covers all pears, like we do with apples.

i was surprised there wasn't one. Got some pear hater on ATP ;-)

I think the issue is that with apples all the edibles ones fall nicely under Malus domestica, but not so with Pyrus since the edibles we're looking for fall under numerous species.

But if we put together a list of all the species we care about, I can make a parent plant that matches just a certain list of species and then anything not listed doesn't fall under its purview.

Yeah and marking something that you "can eat" doesn't always have to mean that you "care to eat". So I say for pears as long as there isn't some toxicity then it can still be under the umbrella of edible. There are many apple cultivars that you wouldn't want to eat raw but make a great cider.

Not sure if this will be helpful, but a gross search of World Economic Plants in GRIN for Common name: "Pear" yielded this list of Pyrus.

Pyrus betulifolia Bunge (birch-leaf pear)
Pyrus ×bretschneideri Rehder (Chinese white pear, white pear)
Pyrus calleryana Decne. (Bradford pear, callery pear)
Pyrus communis L. (pear)
Pyrus communis subsp. pyraster (L.) Ehrh. (wild pear)
Pyrus cordata Desv. (Plymouth pear)
Pyrus ×nivalis Jacq. (snow pear)
Pyrus pashia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don (Himalayan pear)
Pyrus pyrifolia var. culta (Makino) Nakai (Asian pear, Chinese pear, Chinese sand pear, Japanese pear, nashi pear, Oriental pear, sand pear)
Pyrus salicifolia Pall. (willow-leaf pear)
Pyrus ×sinkiangensis T. T. Yu (Xinjiang pear)
Pyrus spinosa Forssk. (almond-leaf pear)
Pyrus ussuriensis Maxim. (Harbin pear, Manchurian pear, Ussuri pear, Ussurian pear)

I feel like Pyrus calleryana wouldn't belong in an "edible pears" parent plant.

I wonder if they include it in the list because it's used as graft stock for Asian Pears. Pea sized bitter fruit...yum.
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bi...

Well I just learned something. I didn't know they were used as rootstocks.

http://practical-parsimony.blo...

Ok, I learned something else.

I have a wild Pyrus calleryana growing on my property and I'll taste the fruits when they are ready.