An incredible ‘magical’ tree has been popping up all over US which bear 40 different varieties of fruit. These tress look ordinary throughout most of the year but can simultaneously produce different varieties of peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries. With each tree featuring its own unique selection of stone fruit, in spring, they bloom into a stunning patchwork of colors.
They were created in an attempt to make people reconsider how food can be produced. The trees are the work of Syracuse University sculptor and artist Sam Van Aken. The project began in 2008 when Mr Van Aken discovered that a New York state orchard, which held varieties of stone fruit 200-years-old, was to be abandoned. The artist bought the orchard in hopes of saving it, and soon after started experimenting with something known as ‘chip grafting.’
Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits. The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch. Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting. He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale.
