No joke, no trick – the tree you see blow grows 40 different types of fruit.
The “Tree of 40 fruit” is actuall an art project started by contemporary artist Sam Van Aken. Each unique Tree of 40 Fruit grows over forty different types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. Most of the time, it looks like a normal tree, but when it becomes spring, it blossoms with 40 different flowers, and then, it makes 40 different fruits, including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds.
The technique through which the tree was created is not special in itself – it is called chip grafting and it is commonly used to add different varieties to a tree. However, from what I could find, no one undertook a project with this much variety.
Van Aken has grown 16 Trees of 40 Fruit so far in museums, community centres, and private art collections around the US. You can see where they are located below.
You can also listen to the man presenting his work at TEDx. He also discusses how we have lost our fruit diversity, falling into a society of monoculture:
