Christina Sarich – It’s the cultivation of years of hard work and patience conducted by Artist and Syracuse University professor, Sam Van Aken. He is responsible for creating an absolute wonder – a tree that bears 40 different kinds of fruit, achieved by harnessing an ancient technique called “chip grafting.”

The blooms of this magnificent tree are breathtaking enough, with hot pink, white, purple, and fuchsia bursting forth every spring and summer season like an Andy Warhol painting on steroids.

What is even more fascinating is that the tree preserves many heirloom varieties of stone fruit, from peaches to nectarines, and even almonds! All on the same tree!

Utilizing what Aken calls “sculpture through grafting,” he says that “I can design and essentially sculpt a tree and how it blooms.”

His vision is unparalleled and the patience it had to take to graft each type of tree onto one – unthinkable. Normally grafting just two kinds of fruit is difficult, since they must both grow well in a particular climate and also be very closely related. Stone fruits are so named because they all contain a seed that is very large and hard.

Aken’s motivation seems to be for the mere beauty of his creation. He told Time,

“I wanted people to have this experience where a tree is blossoming in all these different colors or growing all these different kinds of fruit all at once.”

He also said in a Ted Talk that he wanted to preserve the varieties we keep losing.

Want to know if the “Tree of 40 Fruit” is blooming near you? Check here.

Or you can watch a video created by National Geographic here

SF Source Collective Evolution  August 2015

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