Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus Pyrus , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the pomaceous fruit of the same name. Several species of pears are valued for their edible fruit and juices, while others are cultivated as trees. The tree is medium-sized and native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Pear wood is one of the preferred materials in the manufacture of high-quality woodwind instruments and furniture. About 3,000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide, which vary in both shape and taste. The fruit is consumed fresh, canned, as juice, dried, or fermented as perry. Etymology The word pear is probably from Germanic pera as a loanword of Vulgar Latin pira, the plural of pirum, akin to Greek apios (from Mycenaean ápisos), of Semitic origin (pirâ), meaning "fruit". The adjective pyriform or piriform means pear-shaped. The classical Latin word for a pear tree is pirus; pyrus is an alternate form of this word sometimes used in medieval Latin. Description The pear is native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of the Old World, from Western Europe and North Africa east across Asia. It is a medium-sized tree, reaching tall, often with a tall, narrow crown; a few species are shrubby. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, long, glossy green on some species, densely silvery-hairy in some others; leaf shape varies from broad oval to narrow lanceolate. Most pears are deciduous, but one or two species in Southeast Asia are evergreen. Most are cold-hardy, withstanding temperatures as low as in winter, except for the evergreen species, which only tolerate temperatures down to about . The flowers are white, rarely tinted yellow or pink, diameter, and have five petals. Like that of the related apple, the pear fruit is a pome, in most wild species diameter, but in some cultivated forms up to long and broad; the shape varies in most species from oblate or globose, to the classic pyriform "pear shape" of the European pear with an elongated basal portion and a bulbous end. The fruit is composed of the receptacle or upper end of the flower stalk (the so-called calyx tube) greatly dilated. Enclosed within its cellular flesh is the true fruit: five 'cartilaginous' carpels,