Hello all

I was talking to a Jordanian freind of mine at work today and the topic of figs came up.  He had no idea I liked figs.  He told me his father had a fig orchard in Jordan.  Then he went on to tell me about all the different types his father grew.  His favorite was a red fig, don't remember the arabic name, he said it was the size of a tenis ball and super sweet with a great fig taste.  He didn't know if it needed a wasp or not.  He's going back to Jordan this summer and promised to take  pictures of the different trees and their fruit.  He said he'd ups me some cuttings.  Now I have to practice rooting some trees-may have some extra celeste trees to give away.  Just hope it doesn't need a wasp!

Brian

I thought figs are inverted flowers and only need a wasp to pollinate and create seeds. am I confused? will some fig trees not give any fig fruits (flowers) without a wasp?

 

Yes!
There are 3 types of figs

• Caducous (or Smyrna) figs require pollination by the fig wasp and caprifigs to develop crops. Some cultivars are Calimyrna, Marabout, and Zidi.

• Persistent (or Common) figs do not need pollination; fruit develop through parthenocarpic means. This is the variety of fig most commonly grown by home gardeners. Adriatic, Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Brunswick, and Celeste are some representative cultivars.

• Intermediate (or San Pedro) figs do not need pollination to set the breva crop, but do need pollination, at least in some regions, for the main crop. Examples are Lampeira, King, and San Pedro.

for the ones that do need pollination do they have a flower?  I never seen an actual fig flower.

I'm a new to this myself, but there are figs that need a wasp to pollinate them so that they can ripen the fruit.  If they are not pollinated the fruit that forms falls off.  Again, I'm no expert.  Got all my info from this site the last few months.  Hopefully one of the many members who are will see this and respond. 

thanks Dominick!

For the botanical types: The fig is something called a synconium. The flowers form on the inside of the synconium (so you don't see them). Each flower (there are many. many of them) forms a small portion of edible flesh, and is represented by a seed, hence the large number of seeds in a fig.

See Weird Sex Life of Figs

Google "synconium" and you can be entertained for hours.

I found some great PBS videos (segments at least) about a Sycamore fig in Kenya, the second video titled Mutual Dependence has some incredible shots of the wasp's behavior inside the fig. What struck me was that the female actually packs pollen to her body before leaving the fig she was born in. Does anyone know if she feeds that pollen to her larvae like bees do? or is she mindfully pollinating the other tree as the video implies? I thought they just came out "covered" in pollen then visited another fig.

Here's the video:

They are more nutritious because the seeds are viable, and have a nice nutty flavor (the seeds not the wasp). Social insects like ants, wasps, and bees are usually edible and pathogen-free though, very nutritious as well.  My little niece refused to try some dried Turkish figs once after I explained it to her. "They are more nutritious and nutty" didn't interest her one bit.

That second video is freaky, so many!

That second video is so neat.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

@Brent I have the Queen of the Trees video in HD at home.  It's probably one of the best documentaries I've ever seen in my life.  There have been a few threads around here about it.

They look like the Love Bugs down south.
Bob

I've always said I'll eat anything. Just don't give me the details!

The video that Jason mention may be the best one i have seen .
The showing of the fig wasp inside a fig doing its things was even fascinating to me who does not get impressed easliy.

Jason and Martin- Was there any further insight into the female wasps behavior of packing pollen on herself in the full episode? It is not entirely selfless behavior because if the fig she chooses to lay her eggs in is not pollinated her young will not develop. Fascinating indeed.

I hope it gets aired again soon, I will be waiting.

I do not recall if there was a story of that, I haven't watched in many months and I was so fascinated by the pictures and the grand integrations shown (how everything is tied together) that a lot of the words went in one ear and out the other.

I just checked the Tivo and I'm not showing that it's going to air any time in the next couple of months.  You can buy the video for $20 here - I ripped my copy off my Tivo, but I've also seen that it was popular enough that it was available by torrent all over the internet.  Downloading anything via torrent -  or even visiting torrent websites on the internet - can be pretty dangerous business, with all the drive-by malware out there.

Thanks Jason, I might just buy it then give it as a gift or something. Maybe my niece would like to watch it :)