The owner of a tree that bears 10 different fruits, standing tall at the back of a suburban home on a leafy Shepparton street in Australia, is claiming the Guinness World record for most types of fruits on a single tree. The tree is a result of Hussam Saraf’s hard work of a decade.
“The previous record was five fruits grafted onto one tree, so I decided to graft 10. But, I was waiting to hear back and they told me my application was rejected because they needed five different species, not varieties” – he said. A modest stretch of grass in regional Victoria was transformed by him into a tropical oasis, having rare fruit trees and edible natives.
The previous record was held by Luis H Carrasco of Chile for grafting 5 fruits – apricot, cherry, nectarine, plum, and peach.
Initially, Hussam had applied for grafting yellow and white nectarines, yellow and white peaches, blood and yellow plums, peach cots, apricots, almonds, and cherries, which represented only five types of fruit, which placed him with Carrasco at a tie.
“I told them he had nectarine and peach which they counted as two when it should have been one. So, they said OK, changed the previous guy to four and me to five” – Hussam said.
Hussam arrived in Australia from Iraq in 2009.
