What are the small hard particles in the flesh of a pear?

Question

Particularly Conference pears. The particles are quite tiny and you can crunch them between your teeth. I also get the impression of saltiness: could they be crystals?

Answer 1

This is a type of ground tissue that is used for storage and structural support.  It is called Sclerenchyma!

Here is a reference

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~dlemke/botan...

Answer 2

They are starch crystals formed from sugar when the pear is left to ripen on the tree. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear

Answer 3

Kindly read the information below =

Sclereids are small bundles of sclerenchyma tissue in plants that form durable layers, such as the cores of apples and the gritty texture of pears.

Sclereids are variable in shape. The cells can be isodiametric, prosenchymatic, forked or fantastically branched.

They can be grouped into bundles, can form complete tubes located at the periphery or can occur as single cells or small groups of cells within parenchyma tissues.

But compared with most fibers, sclereids are relatively short. Characteristic examples are the stone cells (called stone cells because of their hardness) of pears (Pyrus communis) and quinces (Cydonia oblonga) and those of the shoot of the wax-plant (Hoya carnosa).

The cell walls fill nearly all the cell's volume. A layering of the walls and the existence of branched pits is clearly visible. Branched pits such as these are called ramiform pits.

The shell of many seeds like those of nuts as well as the stones of drupes like cherries or plums are made up from sclereids.

Click the links below to see sclereids from pear fruit =

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~dlemke/botan...

Now read the text from the same source=

http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~dlemke/botan...

In the link below there is a section of pear fruit - brownish cell groups are the sclereids =

http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/randers...

From = Botanist