Aaron,

At this stage it is not possible to classify that fig   (Caducous  or Persistent).
As you say it looks as if it was caprified in view of the almost full pulp, and its meaty flowers, which were not given the time to mature properly, liberating seeds and filling the syconium with the typical syrup. Additional checks shall be required to come to a conclusion.

Rooting cuttings from that tree this coming season in a wasp free environment could help and make some light on this issue in a year or two.
Or you may experiment (if that is still feasible)  , isolating some figs next season, by the time they are receptive thus avoiding pollination.

Francisco

MacArthursPark, I have a padded envelope here for you with fresh VdB cuttings.  I sent you a private message PM, but you might not be accepting those.  We do have the wasp here, and I'd love to try rooting your beautiful found fig in exchange for Violette De Bordeaux.  Trouble is, I like to send FRESH  They are tightly wrapped in seran so they don't dry out, and in a cool place.  But I have a list of members who would like this variety so I need to hear from you soon.  Please go to your profile and enable private messages.  Your box might be full already.

Suzi

Edit:  PM from a member who got several of these from you.  He's sharing with me.  Thanks for your generosity, but I no longer need cuttings from you.  This is a great offer!  All the best!

you guys, I went to the described location and was looking around for the longest time along the banks of the river, hopelessly i turn around and look up where I am supposed to be so I can go to my car and VOILA!!! Look what I see...
    

Congratulations!
Is this the fig mentioned? Is it a capri? 

Ok, I just reread the post. It is a different tree. Still, very nice one!

Awesome! One thing I'll never do here is find a wild fig growing:(

this must be the MOTHER TREE, but I don't know.

Nice Caprifig Mamme's you found Aaron!  if I am not wrong the Profichi figlets already present.
Now you found another source for your pollinators..
Any cutaways ,..close-ups ??


Strange.. Not a word from the MacArthurs !
It was time for some comments.

Francisco

Well I'd love to get 2 cuttings if anyone has extra.  I have caprifigs I can use if needed.

This wild fig is ready for multiple air layers, on various selected lower branches.

Go for the healthier ones closer to the ground, dig a small trench underneath and force the curved branch section into the trench, fill it up with dirt,  a stone on top, rotting leaves as mulching and by the end of April you have a new Caprifig ready to go to the ground in your garden.

If the soil is too dry you need to irrigate

A quick method to have a new young but sufficiently mature Caprifig

Francisco

Francisco, I even found a low branch that was on the ground, i checked for roots, (silly me!) but I can do the air layer as you say... no one will know either, I can go back anytime, it's really close to me, 3 miles. 
I'll go back to cut a fig and take picture of the insides for you Francisco.

You remember the mother tree was cut to a stump barely sticking out of the ground, right?

Long time abandoned figs of all sorts do their own air-layers automatically, just by touching the soil underneath, certainly being naturally covered with falling leaves and debris.
You need  to anchor the branching you are to air-layer (sufficiently deep)  with a heavy stone not to allow any movement--- the trench to be cut not too wide and  in line with the branch orientation.
May be you see good sticks with figs which will go with the new tree already carrying the good wasps will exit the figs mid June.

The season is ideal for this operation.

To help you to identify this new Caprifig, I am attaching a chart with pictures and ID's of the most common varieties around 1933 and prepared by Dr Ira J Condit
(taken from CIRCULAR 77 -OCTOBER,1933- CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE-
FIG CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA

Would love to see pictures and cutaways of that variety you found - Thank you

Francisco

This may be a caprifig that was grown from seed.  It doesn't seem likely that it would have been planted in that spot.

None-the-less, If you were to send me some cuttings of that tree in your photos and pick some of those figs in April and mail them to me I'd appreciate it.  Since I overwinter my figs in the garage the wasps should be able to survive.   I could even grow 3 types of caprifigs in my grow room.

Wow-hey everyone.  I was buried under work for a couple of days and haven't had a chance to have any figs or fun. I still need to read the whole thread and get back to the PMs.  I'm going to see if I can go back to the spot and retrieve any more wood as well.  I'll keep you posted.  Here's a picture of the bush when we found it though.  The "hundreds of figs" was a guess, not an exaggeration.  There were probably 5-10 fruits on each branch.  We didn't really think that was surprising at the time because there are trees like that in yards throughout LA, and I grew up in Seattle where edible blackberries are a weed so I figured it must just be similar here.

Sorry again for the slow replies!

That's awesome Aaron found another tree! I'm sure there are lots more to be found along the river.

 

Nice looking leaves!

Beautiful tree! My heart is sick that it's gone but it's wonderful that you are at least preserving it. Quite fortuitous. (or would that be fruituitous?)

Wow!
Literally I said "Wow!" when I saw that first pic of the fruit you posted, MacArthursPark!
That Fig looks delicious and the interior is Unreal. Thanks for posting the pic of the whole Fig Bush growing out of the cement - So Cool!
Aaron - Great find! All you Fig Hunters are finding some real treasure out there :)

So Aaron and McArthursPark, you're gonna have to come up with names for your new babies!

Maybe we should plant some known nice varieties along the river and visit from time to time to collect the figs. It seems they really like it there and I ran out of space 6 months ago :(
And the river is quite long, I could plant all the CDDs

How do you squeeze a rooted cutting into a concrete crack and assure it will live?  I'd love to know because I have huge boulders laden with cracks, and trees do take root and grow in them, from SEED, but I doubt you could shove a rooted cutting in a crack and be assured it's roots touch friendly soil in there..........

The one that Aaron took the photo of is not growing in the concrete. I think it should be easy to plant by the fence.