Sochi Friendship Tree - Long Beach, CA, USA
Posted by: DopeyDuck
N 33° 46.484 W 118° 08.091
11S E 394920 N 3737757
This is one of 60 Sochi Friendship Tree's grafted from the original Wild Lemon tree in Sochi, Russia. The grafting tradition expresses people's desire to live in peace and friendship. There is also a Peace Pole at this site.
Waymark Code: WM53GV
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/05/2008
Views: 35
Info taken from: (
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The Tree of Friendship in Sochi is a peculiar symbol of peace, friendship and fraternity between the peoples, as well as unique monument of scientific achievements.
The branches of this Tree have grown from the buds, grafted by people from different countries, of different nationalities and professions.
The Tree has a very interesting history. In 1934, Fyodor Mikhailovich Zorin, a horticulturist, planted a small wild lemon tree (Poncirus Trifoljata). To obtain frost-resistant citrus varieties he grafted it with Japanese tangerine, Italian lemon, American Grapefruit, Spanish orange, Chinese kumquat (Fortunella), some new hybrids grown up by the Soviet scientists, totally 45 species.
The experimental tree drew attention of numerous visitors, due to it's unusual appearance. Otto Yulievich Schmidt, a prominent Soviet Arctic explorer, visited the garden and was amazed to see a six - year old tree that bore citrus fruit of different varieties. He made a commemorative grafting on it. This was the first branch of the future Tree of Friendship. Sixteen years had passed and the Yugoslavian Professor of Biology R. Glavinic made a grafting on the tree in honour of collaboration between Soviet and Yugoslavian scientists. In 1957, Vietnamese medical doctors offered the name of the Tree of Friendship to the orchard - tree. By now the representatives of 167 counties of the world have made more than 635 graftings on the Friendship Tree.
Beside the Tree of Friendship, other sixty young trees grow, graftings are made on them too: this tradition expresses people's desire to live in peace and friendship. There are trees of war, party and labour veterans, the cosmonauts' tree, one of test - pilots, physicians, newsmen, Soviet cultural workers, ambassadors, youth from different countries: Bulgaria, Cuba, Vietnam, the USA, France, Czechoslovakia and others. Every branch has a label indicating names and dates of grafting.
Sochi, Russia is a sister city of Long Beach, CA (
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