There’s a tree in Toronto’s High Park that produces 40 different kinds of fruit

As crowds prepare to descend on Toronto’s High Park for peak cherry blossom season in the coming days, there’s another lesser-known, one-of-a-kind tree that’s quietly blooming under the radar just steps away.

Created by contemporary artist and New York-based professor, Sam Van Aken, the Tree of 40 Fruit — as its name suggests — is capable of producing 40 different varieties of stone fruit, including plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds.

The tree was first planted in 2017 in High Park and sponsored by ZoomerMedia President and CEO Moses Znaimer, who has affectionately named the installation “Plum.”

For most of the year, it looks like any other tree, but in the spring, the Tree of 40 Fruit transforms dramatically, blooming in variegated tones of white, pink, and crimson. By summer, it begins to bear fruit in stages, starting with apricots before moving into varieties like Asian plums.

Van Aken’s invention relies on a centuries-old horticultural technique called grafting, which involves inserting branches from different trees into a single host tree.

For most of the year, it looks like any other tree, but in the spring, the Tree of 40 Fruit transforms dramatically, blooming in variegated tones of white, pink, and crimson. By summer, it begins to bear fruit in stages, starting with apricots before moving into varieties like Asian plums.

Van Aken’s invention relies on a centuries-old horticultural technique called grafting, which involves inserting branches from different trees into a single host tree.

“The Tree of 40 Fruit is an artwork, but as the project has evolved, it’s grown to touch upon issues relating to industrial agriculture, food security, genetic diversity, climate change, and even religion,” Van Aken explained at an Ideacity conference held in 2016.

The artist begins the process of creating a Tree of 40 Fruit just like a regular fruit tree, taking a small piece of scionwood (wood that’s harvested from a tree when it’s dormant) and grafting it onto a new root structure.

After two to three years, he prunes the tree so that it forms four to five scaffolding branches, at which point he can start another grafting process known as budding. During the summer, Van Aken takes budwood, selects a foot-long section of that year’s growth, and takes a small sliver of it as the base of the leaf, including the bud.

That small sliver is then inserted into an incision in the parent tree, which is taped, and left to sit for nine months. After healing in, the tree goes dormant, and in the spring, Van Aken prunes the tree right above the grafting tape.

As a result, the tree becomes “confused,” thinking that this is part of its growth buds, and starts to form a new branch. It takes approximately a year to know if a graft has succeeded, two to three years to see if it produces fruit, and up to eight years just to create one of these trees.

Several of these trees now exist throughout the U.S., including in New York, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. Van Aken visits each tree twice a year for a period of three years, pruning, grafting, and shaping the trees every time.

Beyond its physical beauty, the Tree of 40 Fruit also serves a deeper purpose. Many of the varieties grafted onto it are heirloom or antique species that are no longer commercially produced, and by combining them into a single tree, Van Aken has effectively created a living archive.

“When I first came across Sam’s creation, I was totally charmed by its novelty, creativity and sheer uplifting beauty and goodness,” Znaimer said.

“In that instant, I knew I wanted to give one to High Park. I’m lucky enough to live across the street from the park, and I enjoy it constantly. It never fails to refresh my spirit; and so, this is my way of saying thank you.”

The tree is located roughly 40 metres northeast of Hillside Gardens in High Park, just a few steps south of the Grenadier Cafe. The tree is expected to be publicly unveiled next spring.

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