Tree of 40 Fruit

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Tree of 40 Fruit
Tree of Forty Fruit
Tree of 40 Fruit - tree 75 - MWP 017.jpg
'Tree 75' coming into blossom on the Syracuse University campus, where Van Aken is on the Sculpture faculty.
Tree of 40 Fruit
ArtistSam Van Aken
Year2008
LocationSyracuse University campus, Syracuse, US
Coordinates 43°02′17″N76°08′02″W / 43.03807827°N 76.13392719°W / 43.03807827; -76.13392719
Owner Syracuse University   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CollectionSyracuse University Art Museum, public art of Syracuse University  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Accession No.2014.0072  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.treeof40fruit.com

A Tree of 40 Fruit is one of a series of fruit trees created by the Syracuse University Professor Sam Van Aken using the technique of grafting. [1] Each tree produces forty types of stone fruit, of the genus Prunus , ripening sequentially from July to October in the United States. [2] [3]

Contents

Development

Sam Van Aken is an associate professor of sculpture at Syracuse University. [4] He is a contemporary artist who works beyond traditional art making and develops new perspective art projects in communication, botany, and agriculture. [5] Aken was a 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC. [6]

His family is Pennsylvania Dutch, and he grew up on the family farm. [4]

Artist's planning diagram of "Tree 71" Tree of 40 Fruit - tree 071 diagram.jpg
Artist's planning diagram of "Tree 71"

In 2008, while looking for specimens to create a multicolored blossom tree as an art project, Van Aken acquired the 3-acre (1.2 ha) orchard of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, which was closing due to funding cuts. [2] [3] He began to graft buds from some of the over 250 heritage varieties grown there, some unique, onto a stock tree. [3] Over the course of about five years the tree accumulated branches from forty different "donor" trees, each with a different fruit, including almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum varieties. [3]

A Tree of 40 Fruit fruiting in the artist's nursery Tree of 40 Fruit - nursery - DSC 0302.jpg
A Tree of 40 Fruit fruiting in the artist's nursery

Each spring the tree's blossom is a mix of different shades of red, pink and white. [3]

The tree of 40 fruits was originally conceived as an art project, and Sam Van Aken hoped that people would notice that the tree has different kinds of flower in spring and has different types of fruit in summer. However, the project also introduces the changes in agricultural practices over the centuries. [7]

Distribution

The variety of fruit, harvested from one of the trees in one week, in August 2011 Tree of 40 Fruit - 2011 plum harvest.jpg
The variety of fruit, harvested from one of the trees in one week, in August 2011

As of 2014, Van Aken had produced 16 Trees of 40 Fruit, installed in a variety of private and public locations, including community and university gardens, museums, and private collections. [3] Locations include Newton, Massachusetts; Pound Ridge, New York; Short Hills, New Jersey; Bentonville, Arkansas; and San Jose, California. [8] He has plans to populate a city orchard with the trees. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pear</span> Edible fruits from the genus Pyrus

Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus Pyrus, in the family Rosaceae, bearing the pomaceous fruit of the same name. Several species of pears are valued for their edible fruit and juices, while others are cultivated as trees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peach</span> Type of fruit tree, or its fruit

The peach is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others, nectarines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry</span> Fruit of some plants of the genus Prunus

A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit tree propagation</span> Usually carried out vegetatively by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock

Fruit tree propagation is usually carried out vegetatively (non-sexually) by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchard</span> Intentionally planted trees or shrubs that are maintained for food production

An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller, non-commercial scale and may emphasize berry shrubs in preference to fruit trees. Most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy.

<i>Etrog</i> Edible fruit cultivar

Etrog is the yellow citron used by Jews during the weeklong holiday of Sukkot as one of the four species. Together with the lulav, hadass, and aravah, the etrog is taken in hand and held or waved during specific portions of the holiday prayers. Special care is often given to selecting an etrog for the performance of the Sukkot holiday rituals.

<i>Malus</i> Flowering genus, rose family Rosaceae

Malus is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples and wild apples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit tree pollination</span>

Pollination of fruit trees is required to produce seeds with surrounding fruit. It is the process of moving pollen from the anther to the stigma, either in the same flower or in another flower. Some tree species, including many fruit trees, do not produce fruit from self-pollination, so pollinizer trees are planted in orchards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damson</span> Edible fruit

The damson or damson plum, also archaically called the "damascene", is an edible drupaceous fruit, a subspecies of the plum tree. Varieties of insititia are found across Europe, but the name damson is derived from and most commonly applied to forms that are native to Great Britain. Damsons are relatively small ovoid plum-like fruit with a distinctive, somewhat astringent taste, and are widely used for culinary purposes, particularly in fruit preserves and jams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomology</span> Study of fruit

Pomology is a branch of botany that studies fruits and their cultivation. Someone who researches and practices the science of pomology is called a pomologist. The term fruticulture is also used to describe the agricultural practice of growing fruits in orchards.

A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out. The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion. The scion is the plant that has the properties that propagator desires above ground, including the photosynthetic activity and the fruit or decorative properties. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals, and resisting the relevant pests and diseases. After a few weeks, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant. After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange (fruit)</span> Citrus fruit

The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange, is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid Citrus × sinensis, between the pomelo and the mandarin orange. The chloroplast genome, and therefore the maternal line, is that of pomelo. There are many related hybrids including of mandarins and sweet orange. The sweet orange has had its full genome sequenced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evans Cherry</span> Cherry cultivar

The Evans Cherry also sold under the name 'Bali', is a sour cherry cultivar rediscovered in an old orchard near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Cherries had not been considered viable in the harsh climate of the Canadian prairies, yet the specimen, discovered by Ieuan Evans, had been growing there since the 1920s. Grown on its own rootstock and self-pollinating, the Evans Cherry displays white blossoms in spring and bears abundant fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambo apple</span> Apple cultivar

The origins of the Rambo apple cultivar are unknown. It may date back to the American colony of New Sweden, when in 1637 Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, a Swedish immigrant, arrived on the Kalmar Nyckel. Swedish natural historian Pehr Kalm, who wrote Travels in North America, 1747–51, took notes of his interview with Mr. Peter Rambo, grandson of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, recording that the "original Peter Rambo had brought apple seeds and several other tree and garden seeds with him in a box." The first Rambo apple tree was very likely grown from one of these seeds. There is no certainty, however, since the earliest documented mention of the apple variety's origin occurs in William Coxe's A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider, published in 1817. Coxe wrote only that the Rambo was much cultivated in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey and took "its name from the families by whom it was introduced into notice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grafting</span> Horticultural technique of joining plant tissues to grow together

Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion while the lower part is called the rootstock. The success of this joining requires that the vascular tissues grow together. The natural equivalent of this process is inosculation. The technique is most commonly used in asexual propagation of commercially grown plants for the horticultural and agricultural trades. The scion is typically joined to the rootstock at the soil line; however, top work grafting may occur far above this line, leaving an understock consisting of the lower part of the trunk and the root system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple</span> Fruit that grows on a tree

An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulgoba</span> Mango cultivar

Malgova' or Malgoa is an important mango cultivar mainly grown in Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka and also in other parts of South India. It is a large round fruit, it has a small hard seed inside and is very juicy and fragrant. It is generally considered to be one of the best mangoes. Its production area is centred on the districts of Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, as well as neighbouring parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Petty's Orchard in Templestowe, Victoria, Australia, is among Melbourne’s oldest and last-remaining commercial orchards. A section of the orchard holds one of the largest collection of heritage apple varieties in Australia, including more than 250 varieties of old or rare apples and other types of fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community orchard</span>

A community orchard is a collection of fruit trees shared by communities and growing in publicly accessible areas such as public greenspaces, parks, schools, churchyards, allotments or, in the US, abandoned lots. Such orchards are a shared resource and not managed for personal or business profit. Income may be generated to sustain the orchard as a charity, community interest company, or other non-profit structure. What they have in common is that they are cared for by a community of people.

McColl Center is an artist residency and contemporary art space located at 721 North Tryon Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. Residencies last from two months to eleven months and are available to visual artists as well as creative people in other disciplines. The mission of McColl Center is to encourage collaboration and interaction between artists and the community at large in an immersive atmosphere.

References

  1. Buckley, Madeleine (24 April 2016). "Explore the SU campus through these 6 historic statues". The Daily Orange . Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 "The Gift Of Graft: New York Artist's Tree To Grow 40 Kinds Of Fruit". NPR . 3 August 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "This tree produces 40 different types of fruit". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  4. 1 2 Elliot, Danielle (19 November 2014). "Could a Tree of 40 Fruit Hold a Clue to Solving World Hunger?". Not Impossible. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  5. "SAM VAN AKEN". College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  6. 20 years of Artists-In-Residence McColl Center
  7. Harlan, Becky. "What a 'Tree of 40 Fruit' Tells Us About Agricultural Evolution". National Geographic. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  8. Salkeld, Lauren. "The Tree of 40 Fruit Is Exactly as Awesome as It Sounds". Epicurious. Retrieved 25 April 2015.