For almost three years, I was waiting for the moment to sample my first fig from the Ischia Green I bought at Walmart for $4.00 on sale.  It was about one foot tall, and did not look great.  I said to myself, what the heck, it is only four bucks with green fruits to protect them from birds and squirrel; and I did not have any fig tree before despite I have many other fruits trees.  

It was not growing much for the first year and half to about 2', and then it exploded this year to 7.5' now, even after I pinched some branches twice.  Along with the growth, there came 6 figs at the lower section, while other  leaves nodes do nothing, although I can see there are something at the base, but absolutely not much going there.  Now I have one ripening fig I can sample.   Here are the photo I took for show and tell...

It weighs about 31 grams with short neck and fat tear drop shape and very small eye.  Its skin is paper thin and easily bruised.  When I cut it open, the center part is whitish, instead of strawberry color that I expected based on the tag.  The taste is juicy, berry like with hint of nutty flavor and sweet too. The few seeds in there provide a certain crunching texture to the bite.  The leave is mostly five lobes, unlike that of IG.  Look like I have an Ischia (white) fig tree all along. A bit of dis-appointed by the mislabeling on the part of the seller.  But the color of the fruit is right and the taste is great, on par with my neighbor's Celeste.  So here is the verdict:  a great buy...I will keep it if it bears a lot of fruits, like my neighbor's Celeste tree.  Since I have not had the chance to taste various cultivars of figs, I have no way of comparing it to a lot of other varieties.  My question to y'all who have tasted Ischia white(?) and others, How does it stack against others?  Will it be similar to the IG if that Ischia name means anything? 

This is not my first mislabeled fruit trees offered by the big box stores.  The first time around, I asked for refund because it was sold at regular price.  This time around, I have no intention to return it.  


   

White Marseilles?

Beat me...I have no idea about white Marseilles.  I thought it may be an unintentional label mistabke between IG and I.

I have the same fig from lowes. Not white marselilles because I have that one too. White M is more rounded and the lowes fig tastes better. Also this is not a honey fig. Mine has the same domenet leave and fruit the same as yours.

Thanks, Richie.  So you have ruled out White Marseilles and honey figs, and you have the same fig tree/fruits from Lowes.  I got mine from Walmart, not Lowes.  Would you mind telling me what variety you have from Lowes?  Is it just an Ischia white?

Have a very simmilar fig I got dicounted from lowes.

So maybe not a WM? Very interesting thread.

Here is a link from Figs 4 fun about white Ischia

http://figs4fun.com/Thumbnail_White_Ischia.html

It appears that there are two distinct variations of this variety, one is 3A-08 accession which has reddish flesh, the other is 204 accession, which is exactly like mine in shape and color of the fruit.  

This drives me nut about trying to identify fig variety...even the same variety shows different fruit shape and flesh color according to the link above.  So what gives?  Should we not give it a different name instead of "accession" ?

Happy gardening.  I am content with what I've got, and hope next year will be a bountiful harvest from a tree this size...

You have to understand how names arise.  There are "light" figs, which range from yellow to green; there are "dark" figs, which range from violet to black.  And there are shades in between, such as red and brown.  Light figs are called "white" or "green" or "yellow" in dozens of languages (e.g., bianco, verde, etc.).  Dark figs are called "black" or "dark" or "violet" etc also in dozens of languages (e.g., nero, violette).

Figs have other characteristics such as shape.  So there is "longe d'aout" and "ronde de bordeaux" and so on.

Local people didn't think much about variety names.  There was "fico nero" and "fico bianco" and such.  But the people in, say, Palermo didn't call their red fig "Palermo Red" because they knew where they lived!

But so many people and immigrants have come to other countries, especially the U.S., that the figs people transported got place names, roughly corresponding to the place where the fig and/or the people originated.  There's white marseilles and marseilles black, brown turkey and Lebanese red.  And so on.  Partly it's helpful identification; partly it's clever marketing by sellers.  They'd love to sell you two identical trees with different names (e.g., Longue d'Aout and Nordland).

Ischia is an island near Naples.  If they had a green figs, transported elsewhere, those figs could have been called Ischia White or Ischia Green or a hundred other names.  What is UCSD supposed to do if it acquires two figs with the same name but different characteristics?

Until someone does a lot of genetic testing, it'll all be very confused.  Embrace it.

Try to get some more leaf photos. The fig looks like white m but not that leaf

lol that leaf looks like my Nero or Kathleen Black. 

Brian:  The leaf that I provided above is the typical leaf (majority) on the tree, with 5 lobes.  The middle finger is either a little narrower or fatter.  It matches to other's Ischia white fig tree.  I can not say for the variant 3A-08 accession fig tree, because I have not seen one.  With that reddish flesh, the 3A-08 is very different from the white flesh one which, in my opinion, should be a different cultivar.

Joe:  Thanks for the info.  Guess we have to live with it.  Fortunately, I am not a fig collector and am good with a couple productive, good tasting fig trees.  They will be in ground when the selection is done.  My yard is about full with other fruit trees and I am not interested in containers for fig trees.  

I'm surprised Walmart even knows the names of these varieties.  Where are they sourcing them, and why?  Most Walmarters will buy Desert King as quickly as Black Madeira.

I was surprised as well.  They do offer fruit trees from various nurseries similar to Lowe's and Home depot.  I guess Walmart is trying to compete against these two big box stores in the garden/supply area.   For example, I bought a Santa Rosa plum tree at Walmart store, and a Gold plum at Sam's this spring.  I am surprised that Sam's offered Meiwa Kumquat, Satsuma Orange and Meyer Lemon trees as well. 

I do not recall which nursery supplied the Ischia fig tree, but I think it is a nursery within a couple of state line.

Today, I stopped by Walmart to buy things, and noted that its parking lot just outside the garden department has some fig trees for sale.  So I took a look at them...guess what, there it is, several Ischia fig trees about 1' tall for $9.00.  The thing about mislabeling turned out not so, but the picture of the fig fruit is for the green Ischia with strawberry flesh.  Look like I was taken the picture of the fruit too seriously (and not familiar with fig variety then) to think that it is green Ischia, even though the tag says Ischia.  

There are also brown Turkey and Celeste fig trees, about the same size in one gal container, all for $9.00.  If you wait till September, they may discount to $4.00 a pop, like when I got it several years ago.  Not a bad deal even at regular price.  Mos of the nurseries carry these varieties here because they do well here in ground.