The dormant orchard near Rye Print

Whilst hiking in winter around Rye, East Sussex, I passed through an orchard waiting to flower. The nature of most fruit trees is that they are grafted onto existing, growing trees, of another species. These manmade foodstuffs are even more evident in apples, which all derive from a single apple tree in central Asia. This piece ponders the future of orchards and fruit species if humanity were to neglect them or disappear entirely. I wonder where they will head in their next evolutionary step.