for your consideration...I have a fig plant started from cuttings I collected from a tree nearby the Winter of 2010 that I am hoping you all can help me identify. It is bifara. When ripening, it turns lemon yellow then starts turning violet-brown from the apex towards the stem. It has most of the characteristics of Condit's Brown Turkey. The flavor is good even though the tree is very young. No real seed crunch. Ideas?

Thanks for the picture, Nelson. It does not appear to bear much resemblance to my unknown though. Skin color is off. So are the eye and the pulp colors. Your fig's pulp seems to be pink/reddish. Also, the color at the stem end is very green.

That's a closer match. How are they looking THIS season?

wow. 3-4 weeks ago?! hat's off to you, Nelson. That's a whole other level of difficulty to this fig growing thing. lol. Thanks again for the pics!

Hi, folks!

Wanted to add some more information to try and get a more difinitive ID on this fig. This variety has the capability of producing a crop even after being killed to the ground. Its leaves are all 5-lobed. Never produced anything but 5-lobed leaves. This year, it's second season since starting it as a cutting, it bore excellent fruit from July 19 until after our second frost at the end of November. I am posting photos of the main crop fruit I picked from the mature parent tree on August 4, 2010 in case it helps. The difference in pulps is striking, likely due to the young age of my tree. I had dismissed it as perhaps I had picked the parent fruit too soon but I don't think that is the case. Darn figs seem to behave like chameleons. Juveniles can look vastly different from adults. As if identification was not difficult enough!

Based on Condit's very brief description in his publication The Fig, I am inclined to think that it may be an Eastern Brown Turkey instead of an English Brown Turkey. Here is what he wrote:

"Brown Turkey.Brown Turkey is regarded by English gardeners as by far the best fig incultivation either for standard trees out of doors or for forcing under glass.W. Coleman published a description and color plate of Brown Turkey figs in1880. According to Bunyard (1934) more trees of this variety are planted inEngland than of all other varieties put together, owing to its hardiness andproductivity. It has been introduced into California but its identity is indoubt. Bunyard describes the fruit as medium to very large on old trees; colorchocolate-brown; surface slightly ribbed; pulp deep red; flavor sweet and rich.

Brown Turkeyof Eastern United States. Next to Celeste this is the variety most widelyplanted in the southern and eastern states. The tree is hardy and prolific,often producing two crops in one season. The figs are of medium size, broadlypyriform, coppery-brown in color, and have light strawberry pulp."

Opinions?

Thanks, kiwibob. Unfortunately, I have been all through Condit's works and this fig fails to match the Brown Turkey (or any other) he describes in that publication in many respects. Too many to ignore. Unfortunately, he did not go into sufficient detail in The Fig when he described the English and Eastern BT to make a more definitive ID. Perhaps one day someone with mature trees of those two varieties will come on and post their findings and help clear things up.