Fruit Tree Identifier: Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum, Peach

A fruit tree identifier works best on four features: crown shape, bark, leaves and buds. The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) orchard key and NC State Extension give these marks:

• Apple: rounded crown; bark flaky and mottled; leaf stalk downy and buds rounded; leaves toothed, shiny on top and downy underneath; this year's twigs downy (PTES). The US National Park Service (NPS) orchard sheet sums it up as shaggy scales, fuzzy buds and a fuzzy, scratchy leaf.
• Pear: pyramidal crown; bark fissured into square plates; leaves bright, glossy and never downy; buds large, pointed and shiny (PTES).
• Cherry: shiny shoots with clusters of buds on older twigs; leaves strongly toothed with small glands on the stalk; bark often glossy, broken by bands of corky lenticels (PTES). NPS calls these striated lenticels.
• Plum: rounded crown; bark with small raised pores in horizontal bands; leaves toothed but not downy; buds small, pointed and conical (PTES).
• Peach: NC State describes alternate leaves 2 to 6 inches long and 0.5 to 1.5 inches wide, with a long-pointed tip, toothed edge and two small glands at the base, that curl inward along the midrib. Bark is gray with horizontal lenticels, becoming rough and scaly with age. Trees are 15 to 25 feet tall.
• Quince: downy shoots, small brown buds and shoot tips often flattened and club-like (PTES).

The fastest single test is to feel the underside of a leaf: downy means apple (or quince), glossy and hairless means pear, and toothed with glands on the stalk points to cherry, plum or peach.

In spring the flowers do the work:

• Apple: pink buds that turn white as they open (Wildtown orchard guide); NPS describes the flowers as flushed pink.
• Crabapple: bright pink blossoms (Wildtown).
• Pear: white blossoms (Wildtown) that face up (NPS).
• Cherry: white blossoms densely covering the branches (Wildtown) that nod down (NPS).
• Peach: pink, five-petaled flowers 1 to 1.5 inches across, fragrant, opening before the leaves (NC State).
• Quince: bright red flowers early in spring (Wildtown).
• Callery pear: creamy white, five-petaled flowers 0.75 to 1 inch wide with an unpleasant smell (NC State).

• Apple: a semi-broad trunk with wide, spreading branches up to about 20 feet; tiny fruits visible in July (Wildtown).
• Crabapple: tiny, hard, red, sour fruit (Wildtown).
• Pear: taller and skinnier than an apple tree; pear-shaped fruit (Wildtown).
• Sour cherry: often a bush pruned into a tree shape; fruit turns bright red by July (Wildtown).
• Plum relatives: PTES describes damson as a small tree with occasional spiny branches and round purple, red, yellow or green fruit, and greengage as plum-like with green fruit.
• Quince: yellow, scented, pear-shaped fruit (PTES), much firmer than an apple (Wildtown).
• Peach: round fruit about 3 inches across, fuzzy, yellow to orange tinged red, with a large rough pit; nectarines are the smooth-skinned form (NC State).
• Elderberry: a shrub or small tree with white flower clusters in July and small dark red to almost black fruit (Wildtown). Wikipedia notes that some elder species have toxic berries, leaves, roots and stems, so do not treat elderberries as a snack without an expert identification.

Many "pear trees" in parking lots and yards are Callery pear, which the top-ranking fruit tree guides do not mention. NC State Extension describes glossy, oval, wavy-edged leaves that turn reddish-purple in fall, branches that can end in thorns, and small round fruits 0.5 to 1 inch across, yellowish-green to brown, that are not edible for people though birds eat them. Its creamy white spring flowers smell bad. NC State lists it as invasive in North Carolina and other southeastern states and notes that Bradford cultivars cross-pollinating with other trees revert to the invasive form. Its branches grow at upright angles with weak crotches that break in wind and ice.

If your "pear" has thumbnail-sized fruit and smelly flowers, it is almost certainly Callery pear, not an edible pear.

Identifying the tree is not the same as knowing the fruit is fit to eat. NC State notes that peach seeds contain amygdalin, a cyanide-producing compound, and that crushed or chewed seeds are more dangerous than a swallowed pit. Ornamental and wild look-alikes, sprayed trees and fallen fruit add more unknowns. Get an identification confirmed by a local extension office or experienced grower before eating from an unfamiliar tree. If a child or adult eats an unknown fruit or seed, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 in the US; for pets, call your veterinarian.

Yes. Photograph the tree and the app identifies it, with free scans every day. Give it the right photos: a leaf from above and below, a twig with buds, the bark at chest height, flowers or fruit if present, and the whole tree. If you prefer a manual key, the Arbor Day Foundation's online tree identification is an illustrated, step-by-step key that starts with your region and then the leaves; its tree guide covers more than 200 trees and shrubs.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every measurement, date, price and claim was then checked against the sources listed below, which were opened and read on 2026-09-25. Where two sources give different numbers, both are shown.