Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Do you know Pyrus salicifolia?

Well, I didn't...

Size and foliage does seem to match Elaeagnus angustifolia, as mentioned
elsethread, but if I've put the right name to the right plant the fruits
of this are smaller, not pyriform, and not a pome.

Well, if you'd put the fuit in my hand I would have said it was a pear,
and cut up, I'd still have said it was a pear, only more emphatically -
while it doesn't have the beak of (say) a Williams or Conference, it
does have a slight tapering towards the stalk.

In shape the fruit's not unlike the pears of a tree we had in another
life, though much smaller - the tree was normal sized for a standard
pear, the pears were a normal size, but they were of case-hardened
superconcrete construction, and having once bent their bills, even the
fieldfares and redwings left them alone.

The pears didn't soften during stewing overnight in the bottom oven of
the Aga, and often survived the winter under the tree where they lay,
and even when brown all the way through they were far too dangerous for
us (kids) to use as ammunition.²¹³

Very pretty large flowers and the tree was a glory for a rather short
time each year. It was probably a pollinator - we had several other pears.

²¹³ as we did with (say) rotten codlings and conference pears, which
explode on impact in a most satisfying fashion.

--
Rusty