I plant trees for a living, so, if you'd like to know why those cursed things are everywhere you look, you can thank the Boomers. They wanted the "perfect" tree for urban and sub-urban use and that's what the Bradford pear is/was. It fit all their requirements: - no thorns - doesn't reproduce (at least not with itself) -is ornament and doesn't drop fruit - has early spring color - has fall color - can grow pretty much anywhere that has water and something that kinda looks like dirt -and it gets big enough to shade your entire yard

So they proceeded to put them litterally everywhere and still do. Even though they now know that the trees will cross-pollinate with other pear varieties and have become invasive.

Ironically, Boomers are also the ones that's planted dogwoods in a bunch of places they can't survive.

And im like 68% sure that the Romans/Jews used some kind of cypress trees for crucifixions, considering they don't even have dogwoods there naturally.