Whoa, that's some fig. Mine haven't quite reached that size - yet. So the quest is back on again - possibly. This is getting really confusing now, and wondering whether the curiosity justifies the effort involved in these ID's.

ok, I've just viewed some more pics, & I'm now a lot less sure about the ID of Lebanese Red:

1. The skin color is close, but still not quite right. Mine are more 'mottled' or banded, whereas LR looks more uniform and it has a stronger yellowey hue.
2. The flesh of the LR looks darker to me - possibly the reason for its name.
3. Leaf morphology looks quite different.

I think my search is still on. Either that, or maybe I'll just have to be content with TbF/Unknown.

Hey Guys,

I think I may have finally ID'd my unknown. I was doing some search-engine research about figs in Venice (we're about to take a short break there, & was considering taking my secateurs with me) when I came across this:

Fig Angelique - Ficus carica
Click to enlargeA pale skinned fig with red flush on the sunny side, pink flesh with very good flavour. Excellent as pot grown tree on the patio or as a fan trained on a wall in warm gardens.

Both the pic. and the description look like v. good matches to me (in fact the visible banding uncannily echoes my description above), and I consider this a much more plausible candidate than the Lebanese Red suggested by ascpete. Unless some expert on this forum can tell me why my TbF cannot be an Angelique, I'm gonna count this as job done. Henceforth, my TbF will be called/referred to as Angelique. What a beautiful name anyway - positively heavenly, and very apropos.

Any comments on my amateur sleuthing gratefully accepted.


EDIT: The enlarged pic. can be seen here:

http://www.primrose.co.uk/fig-angelique-ficus-carica-p-60116.html?cPath=7767_7660_5684_5703_7663&src=list_img

And it's a shame that pics of leaves are not included by this nursery for further confirmation. 

Costas, maybe you can find an Angelique when you are in Venice (I'm jealous) and take photos of the leaves for comparison.  I think it would be hard to be too confident until you compare the leaves.  Who knows, maybe someone on the forum has such a specimen and can provide photos of the leaves as well.

The picture was actually provided by a nursery here in the uk. I don't know why this appeared in my search for Venice. I clicked on it out of curiosity, hence the accidental discovery, and it's therefore quite possible that this fig has nothing to do with Venice. I might try a general internet search for those pics of the leaves tho, and yes, I agree that has to be done before my attempt to ID my unknown can gain any real traction.

ok, I've seen more pics, so now I've got some serious doubts about my Angelique ID. Shoot. Just when I thought I was onto something. Seems the search continues, at least for a while longer.