Pears are fruits produced and consumed worldwide, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. In the family Rosaceae, the pear tree and shrub are a species of genus Pyrus, 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 3000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide, which vary in both shape and taste. The fruit is consumed fresh, canned, as juice, or dried.
In botany, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are how flowering plants disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits, in particular, have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.