Hello all,
I heard recently that it is possible to differentiate fig types in a very general sense by observing the characteristics of the scion wood. I don't know what bark trait would correlate to a fig type, but thought it might be interesting to see if any of the forum members have any experience with such deductions. Has anyone heard of this?

there are few that are distinctive like Panache. but most others are pretty much the same to my eyes.

actually... there's a lot of information we can get from just observing the cutting, the texture , meaning whether they are hairy, velvety, or smooth, waxy, dull or shiny... will give some one a narrowing down points. But , unfortunately, not to pinpoint to what variety that cutting belong to. That's my take on this.

That's what I assumed. I tried to see if there was any significant difference between my trees that might even suggest whether they produce black or white figs. I couldn't make any concrete deductions, perhaps given the sample of varieties is small (I have about a dozen varieties).

I could (if I tried hard enough) separate all the cuttings I have this year into three groups.  My thoughts are those differences come from the age of the cutting, the condition they were stored and where on the tree the cuttings were taken from more than anything else.

oh, true, I had to add the following about my comment!:-  the branch surface differences are mainly on first year, young branches, maybe even second year ones, but older branches lose those characteristics.