Tell her it will eventually replace another 5 trees or more and she'll be happy (just don't give her a date when those trees will be removed.)

That's almost right about the mating rituals of the wasp.  The details are that a female crawls in, lays her eggs in the flower styles.  The males hatch first and impregnate the females that are still developing in the flower styles.  Then the males try to chew their way out of the eye, enlarging the hole.  They die there and the the females hatch.  At the same time the male flowers near the eye start producing pollen.  The females emerge from the eye, brush against the pollen bearing stamens, carrying the pollen with them and it all starts again.

This thread started as a commentary on the Lampeira  (Lampiera) fig variety. Thanks for the spelling lesson. Unfortunately, now I have a lot of files to correct.

We rooted three fig scions, Lampeira, Jurupa, and Osborne's Prolific, from the 2004 CRFG scion exchange (Santa Clara Valley Section.) I believe that the scions were cut from the Heritage Orchard at Prusch Park in San Jose.

The figs are now growing in the warmest, sunniest part of our yard in Palo Alto, CA. The Osborne lives up to its name. It is prolific, it is sweet but bland by comparison to the other two. The Lampeira is the more reliable of these. The fruit is prettier, jammier, and richer tasting. In most years the skin has been streaked with purple or red over a green background. The only downside to the Lampeira is that the leaves develop rust which I've not been able to control using Serenade fungicide (bacillus subtilis strain QST 713. We have a fourth tree, a Panache, the sometimes offers us a few small main crop fruits. I don't think we get enough heat for this fig to set and mature properly in Palo Alto. FWIW, the Panache is only slightly richer tasting than the others. Otherwise they are quite similar in flavor.

Because we have limited space, 4 trees planted on 5.5 - 6 foot centers in a 13 x 20 foot plot between two driveways, each year I've elected to prune off all but a bud of last year's growth. I've also started pruning off the tips on new growth at 6-8 nodes. That means that we usually forgo any breba crop. I've not seen fig wasps but that certainly does not mean that our figs do not get caprified.

Do I understand that earlier replies in this thread call into question the naming of the cultivar growing at Prusch Park? It probably came from Wolfskill (UC Davis.) As I give cuttings and starts to friends I'd like to give as accurate a name as I can.

The larger fig in the photo below fits nicely into a large soup or serving spoon.

 
Thank you for any clarifications, observations or comments.

baumgrenze

I believe the confusion centers around the fact that there is more than one Lampeira.  The one at Prusch is Lampeira Branca and is a common fig, unlike Lampeira Preta.

I tasted fruit from the Lampeira (Branca) tree at the Heritage orchard in 2013 along with posturedoc (Neil) and didn't consider it be be bland at all.  My own tree hasn't fruited yet and I forget it's current status (need to update my datbase).

Lampas—Lampeira.
Lampeira (Algarve)
—
Portoghese (Italy): Lampas (Portugal).—Size, 4 1/2  by 2 1/2
inches; shape roundish-pyriform. with long, slender neck, well set and shouldered. Stalk very short; shape rather irregular, lopsided, largest diameter at center. Eye medium, raised; scales pink. Skin thin or medium, greenish brown, green in shade, brownish violet in the sun; pulp coarse, rose colored, very sweet, juicy, but lacking flavor. Leaves small, 'i to 5 lobed, but lobes very shallow. Tree of medium growth; first crop of brebas abundant. Second crop drops. A fig common in northern Italy, and cultivated for its first-crop figs. Also common in Algarve, Portugal. Link says that in Portugal the fir.st crop of this variety is called "figos Lampas,'" and is especially cultivated around Tavira, in Algarve. The second crop he designates as ' figos vendimos," which is probably an error, the author having good ground
to believe that the ''figos vendimos " ome from a different variety. This fig belongs to the San Pedro class, the trees sent to Niies through the Department of Agriculture having matured splendid second-crop figs after having been caprificated. It is certain, however, that the Lampeira is one of the finest of all first-crop figs, and that it should be widely distributed. What the White
San Pedro is for Andalusia in producing the luscious brebas the Lampeira is for southern Portugal. (Fig. 71.)

/ ......................

Above Lampeira (black) description is from Gustav Eisen's and dates back from 1901.
It is absolutely correct. Searching the forum there will be dozens of pictures of the real fruit both their brebas and main crop

Francisco
Portugal

Lampeira весной 2014 в моем саду не брали. Черенки были малый диаметр питательных веществ не хватает для успешного укоренения.

The 'Lampeira' in our 'fig forest' clearly came from the tree in the Prusch Heritage Orchard. It is tree # E 31. It is next to the sidewalk just where it begins to run to the west. The tree just before it is Panache, E 30. The trees are unmistakable given Panache's striped fruit and abundant FMV and Lampeira's leaves which have a peculiar odor and are their susceptibility to fig rust. Here's a link to a collection of local CRFG documents including orchard inventories.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/scv_crfg/files/Pruich%20Park%20/

https://xa.yimg.com/df/scv_crfg/Prusch+Orchard+Inventory+7_23_14.doc?token=8CWJnBfwOMRnuA0y4cDqfz01nrNqg9QNAIjjlzzs47sJAEhyHrwXsbCImtjlH5qgbq9Zb3WOSyxSmUxRUMI-AA3ggyoZZBkkwI9Ml4y0_N1KIJIg6zi8mpM5rRm8JrbDRhfXONK-qZtLEe9YWvuG-lNBsxTOi7W_Ers&type=download

The image below is an annotated Google Earth screen-dump.

 

I want to be sure that others are aware of the distinctive leaf odor of this tree, and of its leaf rust susceptibility. I've seen the threads about fig plants and odor. To my nose the odor suggests C-4 and higher even nimbered carbon fatty acids and perhaps their simple esters (methyl, ethyl.) The smell is sweeter and more complex than just that of the acids (rancid butter and goats.) I gather from other threads that this narrows down the field a bit, especially to figs that are jammy tasting. I just checked and it alone is easy to detect among the 17 cultivars on our 4 trees.

baumgrenze