A tree in Australia has smashed the world record for having the most varieties of fruit.

A tree in Australia has smashed the world record for having the most varieties of fruit.
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Australian Gardener's Fruit Tree Claims World Record

An Iraqi-born gardener with green fingers has claimed a Guinness World Record for his backyard fruit tree.

A man in Australia has claimed a Guinness World Record for the most types of fruit on a single tree. Hussam Saraf, who is originally from Iraq, grows and sells rare fruit trees and edible plants from his back garden in the state of Victoria. He has just claimed a world record for having five types of stone fruit on a single tree: almond, peach/nectarine, plum, cherry and apricot/peachcot, Australian media reported. The journey to the record began when a visitor to his backyard was so impressed by his grafting skills that they suggested Saraf enter his work to the Guinness Book of Records. Saraf dug around and discovered that the record was held by Luis H Carrasco of Chile, with a tree that bore five fruits. 

Breaking the record

Saraf's stone fruit tree at that stage had seven different varieties. "But I thought, 'If I'm going to break it, I have to break it well'. So that's why I decided to graft another three grafts on the tree," he told ABC. Then he hit a stumbling block. The judges informed Saraf although his tree grew 10 varieties, their experts ruled they represented only five types of fruit. Undeterred, he scrutinised the ruling and found a discrepancy, the Shepparton News reported. While the judges considered nectarines and peaches to be one type of fruit on his tree, they had ruled they were different fruits on the Chilean’s tree. Saraf pointed this out and the record was his.

Peaceful co-existence

For Saraf, his gardening labours represent a message about peaceful coexistence. “Where the colours, shapes and different leaves and fruits on the branches symbolise diversity in society, and how we live together with respect and acceptance,” he wrote. Saraf grew up in a small town in Al-Hamzah Al-Sharqi district in Iraq and came to Australia in 2010, at the age of 22. He is the multicultural officer at a local secondary school and a Red Cross volunteer. 

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