 It is likely that pears spread to Britain after their domestication with early farmers and subsequently escaped into the wild.Its establishment in the British Isles is probably due to human migration, with the trees belonging to one of the "Pyrus communis" subspecies instead of the true wild pear species of "P. pyraster", which is native to much of continental Europe but absent from Britain.Another species of pear found wild in South West England, the Plymouth pear ("Pyrus cordata"), is now thought to have originated from hedging plants imported from Brittany.