Clément Bivort

Clément Bivort

Origin and History

A Belgian pear obtained by Alexandre Bivort, director of the nurseries of the Society Van Mons at Geest-Saint-Remy, raised in the gardens of that company and first placed on the market in 1858. Downing (1900) recorded it as not yet fruited in America at that time, relying on a description from the Société Van Mons. Leroy's Dictionnaire de Pomologie (1:569, with figure, 1867) provides the principal European authority.

Tree

Young shoots smooth, short-jointed, yellow-brown. (No further tree or leaf characteristics recorded in available sources.)

Fruit

Size and Form: Medium. Downing describes the form as roundish oblate; Hedrick gives globular-oblate.

Skin: The two sources differ on color detail. Downing (quoting Van Mons) describes the skin as golden yellow, shaded with red on the sun-exposed side. Hedrick describes it as orange-yellow, sprinkled with some gray dots, and clouded with fawn especially on the sun side. Both agree on a yellow base color with sun-side shading; the nature of that shading (red vs. fawn clouding) and the presence of gray russet dots are noted by Hedrick but not by Downing.

Flesh: Whitish (Hedrick) or white (Downing). Fine-grained, melting, juicy. On flavor, the two sources diverge: Downing (Van Mons) describes it simply as sweet and perfumed; Hedrick describes it as sugary, acidulous and sourish, with a strong and agreeable perfume of anise. The acidulous/sourish quality and the specific anise character are present in Hedrick but absent from the Van Mons account. Hedrick's description, being based on fruited specimens, is likely more precise.

Core, cavity, basin, stem, seeds: Not described in available sources.

Season

Downing gives November. Hedrick gives November and December, classing it as a first-quality fruit for that season.

Uses

Not explicitly stated. The combination of melting texture, juiciness, and pronounced perfume suggests a dessert pear.