Out of the Desert, a Rare Fruit Garden and a Lasting Legacy

Dr. Alois Falkenstein put decades of work into breeding and cultivating rare fruits in the Arizona desert, and created a community of like-minded gardeners.

MESA, Ariz. — Jane Falkenstein’s house looks like any other single-family home in the Salt River Valley of Arizona — beige stucco, gravel lawn, a two-car garage, a shaggy palm tree.

The path to her front door gives the first indication that her home is something special. A mature plumeria tree with dozens of fragrant yellow and white flowers wraps around the walkway. Her open windows emit the sounds of squawking birds, which carry clear to the end of the cul-de-sac. Above her doorbell is a stained-glass window that depicts a green Amazon parrot.

These eccentricities portend, though hardly prepare a visitor for, the small miracle tucked away in Mrs. Falkenstein’s backyard — a dense jungle of rare Latin American and Asian fruit trees in one of the hottest and most arid urban environments in North America.