The white pear tree connects you with your heart’s desire – this is a hugely uplifting, joyful tree that opens your eyes to the beauty of life. White pear has an exuberant, feminine energy that enhances self-acceptance and open-heartedness. It may assist you with finding your path in life provided that you have the commitment to follow through with what is asked of you. The white pear may be a good essence to use when you need to manifest abundance in your life.

Affirmation: I am perfect. I love and embrace the totality of my Being. I see and celebrate this perfection in others.

Corresponding Colour: Coral Pink

Supportive Essence: the Sea Guarrie may act as a supportive essence to the White Pear essence, particularly if the White Pear essence is being used to address a long-standing imbalance and an “awareness crisis” has arisen. An awareness crisis is an intensification of negative feelings or old patterns of being. It is the soul’s way of calling our attention to these old blockages that need to be acknowledged, blessed and released.

White Pear

Apodytes dimidiata

Family: ICACINACEAE

Learning about how this tree grows in nature, brings further appreciation of its essence:

A stately evergreen tree, the white pear can grow with a long straight trunk to over twenty meters in height under forest conditions; rocky and exposed sites result in small, gnarled and compact specimens. Easily adapted, it is found from the Cape Province in southern Africa to Ethiopia in the north.

The white pear bears a profusion of sweetly scented white flowers and their sweet vanilla scent perfumes the warm summer months. These are followed by the fruit – an asymmetrical black drupe with a red, fleshy appendage. The bark is a pale gray on young trees and it is often covered by white and orange lichens at Platbos. The branches and trunks turn a darker gray as the tree ages.

The timber of the white pear has been prized since the first days of colonization for its strong, elastic qualities. It was much sought after by wagon builders and as a result most of the country’s finest trees were logged out. It is a valued wood for furniture making and it has also been used for flooring, veneering, paneling, rifle stocks and engraving for printing. Wind-fallen branches are gathered at Platbos and hand-crafted into unique and beautiful pens, pendulums and pendants.

Traditionally the root bark is used to treat intestinal parasites and the leaves are used as a remedy for ear infections. The white pear is also revered for it protective powers and it is said to ward off evil spirits. The Department of Biology at the University of Kwazulu Natal has identified compounds found in its leaves as a potential molluscicide for the snails involved in the lifecycle of bilharzia.

The white pear is a protected tree in South Africa. They make beautiful specimen, shade trees and they also prune well so can be grown as dense, screening hedges. The roots are non-invasive and they are fast growing trees.