The Frankenstein Tree is both a curious piece of art and an agricultural wonder, the work of Syracuse University Art Professor Sam Van Aken. The tree, which can produce 40 different types of fruit, was created using traditional grafting techniques.
The inventor had help from a team of qualified biologists and farmers who contributed their knowledge of grafting shoots from different plants. One of the most striking aspects of the tree is that, depending on the growing season of each variety, the tree’s changes color and smell.
The common denominator of the basic components is: in any case, they are “bone” plantsthat is, they are supported by a trunk or branches.
So far, twenty copies of Frankenstein have been placed in art museums, university campuses, and private land in the United States. The first stage of preparation combines about twenty types of fruit, followed by pruning and planting of a large number of varieties.
Van Aken succeeded in grafting different stone fruit plants. peach, plum, apricot, nectarine and cherryCreating a single tree that grows 40 different types of fruit.
Since these stone fruits showed great similarities in their chromosome structures, Van Aken began combining them with a “chip grafting” method. The tree, which blooms in pink, crimson and white tones in spring, gives various fruits in series in summer.
natural procedure
For the realization of this project with artistic boundaries no complicated techniques, chemicals or laboratory experiments were required. The procedure is absolutely natural. These magical fruit trees are the direct result of native trees, heirlooms and fruit from ancient times.
The first specimen was planted in an orchard at the Agricultural Experiment Station in New York, an orchard that the professor saved when he learned it would be demolished.
“I wanted the tree to disrupt and transform everyday life, and also to surprise people,” said Van Aken. “When the tree unexpectedly it blooms with different colors and you can see different types of fruit hanging from the branches.“It not only changes the way you see it, it also changes the way things are perceived in general,” he told the Clarín newspaper.
The versatile tree allows for different combinations, as Van Aken’s project actually covers more than 250 fruit varieties on different trees. Therefore, the public has the opportunity to appreciate it. Different models of Frankenstein in Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Van Aken’s aim is to manipulate nature to enhance its beauty. This type of undertaking has its own conditioning factors: you have to wait years to see if a vaccine bears fruit, and you have to be very careful about pruning and working around strategic areas where grafts are placed and growth. the cycle of each fruit used.
“I see it as a work of art, a research project and a form of conservation. It is a sculpture by grafting,” said Van Aken. Now the main goal is to get the “hundred fruit trees”.