“If Only Every Tree Bore Red Apples…” Belief in Fruit Growing on Graft-Incompatible (“Alien”) Trees in Hungarian Folklore

In Hungarian ethnography, the field of ethnobotany – including ethnopomology (folk knowledge of fruit cultivation) – is situated within the broader domain of folk knowledge of nature. Several belief elements related to such knowledge have already been explored. This article examines the widespread belief in fruit growing on graft-incompatible (“alien”) trees and discusses the economic, cultural, and social circumstances of its formation, as well as early historical antecedents in its documentation. It then surveys sporadic data from the Hungarian-speaking region that allow references to so-called miracle trees, appearing in various folklore texts and genres, to be placed within a broader context and interpreted more easily. The study suggests that knowledge and traditions concerning the nature and characteristics of fruit varieties, as well as some of the beliefs related to their origins, may stem from very early – ancient and medieval – concepts. Belief in – or the denial of – fruit growing on “alien” trees runs through the history of (folk) fruit growing to the present day and has been incorporated into Hungarian folklore, including folk tales with interpolated songs, folksong lyrics, anecdotes, historical legends, sayings and proverbs, riddles, and other genres. Through a concrete case study, the article raises questions about the validation of knowledge, the generation, functioning, and transmission of traditional ecological knowledge, and the acquisition of folk knowledge of nature and landscape. At the same time, it examines the formation of peasant/traditional knowledge versus (the often contradictory) officially sanctioned agricultural and biological knowledge – an adaptive knowledge system characterized by the dynamic unity of “inherited” theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and worldview.

Context (archaeology) · Denial · Ethnobotany · Field (mathematics) · Folklore · Situated · Traditional knowledge · Vocabulary · Horticultural and Viticultural Research · Phytochemistry and biological activities of Ficus species · Plant Physiology and Cultivation Studies