Ein Baum, der 40 Früchte tragen soll

Ich hatte hier vor genau einem Jahr den TED-Talk mit Sam Van Aken, in dem er über seine Ambitionen spricht, einen Obstbaum durchzukreuzen, der dann später irgendwann mal vielleicht 40 verschiedene Früchte trägt. Offenbar ging sein botanisches Gespür auf. National Geographic hat ihn und seine Idee besucht. Es ist Sommer – einige der Früchte gedeihen.

“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.”

(Direktlink)