Japanese pear tree "Yasato"

#The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Japanese pear tree (Pyrus pyrifiolia Nakai) bearing fruit with a yellowish-green skin, having a stout shoot and a long internode, strongly resistant to black spot disease, and having a high productivity.

#In Japan, excellent cultivars, including `Kosui`, `Shinsui` and Hosui known as "Sansui", have been bred for a Japanese pear tree bearing a fruit with a yellowish-brown skin, and thus producers of pears were able to cultivate both early and mid-season varieties of the pear tree bearing a fruit with a yellowish-brown skin. Regarding a Japanese pear tree bearing a fruit with a yellowish-green skin, `Nijisseiki` is the best known cultivated species; others, for example, `Yakumo` and `Shinseiki`, are little-cultivated species. Thus, desirably the term of distribution of the pear fruit is extended, particularly using an early cultivar, and thus a useful early cultivar having a fruit that is soft, crisp and very juicy, with a high Brix, is required.

#One purpose of our breeding program is to provide improved varieties of the pear fruit tree which can be picked earlier in the season than `Nijisseiki`.

#FIG. 1 gives the pedigree of the new and distinct variety of Japanese pear tree `Yasato`;

#FIG. 2 is a photograph of a shape of the new variety of Japanese pear tree;

#FIG. 3 is a photograph of adult leaves, the upper row being adaxial and the lower one being abaxial, of the new variety of Japanese pear tree;

#The characteristics of the new and distinct variety of Japanese pear tree `Yasato` are as follows (herein, "J.H.S.C." is an abbreviation of "Japan Horticulture Standard Color Chart."):

#Tree:

#Vigor.--Strong; stronger than `Chikusui` and `Shuugyoku`. The unpruned tree may have a height of about 7 m and a width of about 4 m when 15 years old. When the was grafted on a root stock, which is a seedling stock of Japanese pear, and cultivated for ten years, a vegetative shoot of the tree extended to 70-80 cm per year.