Hi all,

I'm from Dalmatia, Croatia.

Wild fig trees are everywhere here on my island, and before lately tourism, majority of inhabitants were agricultural by profession; growing grapes, figs, olives and aromatic plants. Climate is Csa, with cool rainy winters, and sunny/warm in the rest of the year.

I have one at least 150yrs old tree in my garden which I am trying to identify, so any help is very much appriciated. It is:

• tree very drought resistant
• has two waves of good fruit yield good for fresh and processing but not for drying. First one is scarce, born on last year growth and second is almost continuous until November when it rots on tree
• the fruit size is rather uniform at 75grams/piece (2,65oz)
• fruit skin not resistant to rain crack, green, rather oblong tear-like shaped, mid thick
• short and thick petiole, difficult to harvest
• leaves big dark green, mostly 3 rays or sometimes 5, not very notched

no luck..? :-(

Hi, welcome to the forum!
I'm afraid I can not help you with the identification of this tree. Hopefully other members have an idea. I must say the figs and the leaves look very nice.
Do you also have pictures of your 150 years old tree?

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing,those are some very nice looking figs,really cool light green colour,your area has contributed to the array of varieties (I have a Dalmatie fig tree on its way) and hopefully will continue to do so,perhaps this is another Dalmatian fig which has not yet found its way out to the wider world yet?.If anyone can identify it it will be the fig nuts here,best of luck finding an ID

Tomi,

I don't know what it is but it is a beauty and the figs look great!

Tony

Thank you all. I would wish to confirm that it was locally bred and not brought her by some seamen from somewhere.

Timo,

Here's a picture of it. I moved recently from the city to the island and found a lot of interesting things - that forgoten variety among other stuff. My dad remembers days before WW2 that it was cut down to rejuvenate, and in winter 1953. it was completely frozen and cut completly again. My late grandfather born 1900. said that he as a child remembered the tree beeing there big. We had a major infestation of Zeuzera pyrina worms in the last decades and my dad cut it again in the 90ees and it was neglected and cut to make space fot the neighbouring walnut untill now.

As you see it is not in best shape, and also beeing locally considered inferior variety to Petrovaca White (Petrovka) for the fresh market yield and to Bilica (Dalmatie) for taste and drying quality. The fruit of my tree is very much a mixture of these two varieties and so possible a bred of them.   

all the best

Welcome to the forum
You have a very nice tree over there!  and full of history.

My guess is that it could well be a Dotatto type, extremely prolific, sweet and flavored.

A few of the known synonyms of this cultivar..
Dattaresi  Binelloni, Fichi di Calabria, Fico della goccia d’oro,Napoletani, Kadota, Ottato, etc..

Francisco
Portugal

Thanks Francisco!

From what I saw, it is similar or of that type.

If not beeing an adaptive enviromental trait of the possibly same genotype, mine fruits are slightly heavier than those (avg. 75grams towards 60grams) and mine petioles are shorter and not 'harded' or 'wooded' at the end therefore more difficult to handle; making a 10% really properly harvested fruits - a success (check the pics). Mine fruits starts to slightly crack as a sign of maturity even with a 2month drought we often get. That is the reason that these surviving trees in hundreds are now mostly abandoned, in absence of fresh processing facilities. Also the skin is quite thick and it takes a long time for them to dry, allthow taste was not bad, but very chunkier comparing to other varieties in Dalmatia




  
thanks again

When I was a little boy we had something similar in front of my granny house.
I was very little,6 year old when my uncle decide to take it out to make room for car park !!!
I was so sad..I still remember my granny and the sweet taste of her figs given to me by her hand.
Toma I hope in February we could make a trade,I will send You few cuttings of mine unknown figs,and if you could send me few of Yours?
We must preserve all of our dalmatian figs.
It is our heritage,and the world heritage.

Of course, man :-)

Hopefully by then, I intend to find out if my variety proven unique or long time imported.

I have a 90% success in cuttings simply sticked in potted soil and well watered. No diseases or problems. Seedlings grew strong and vigorous, much more vigorous than Dalmatie (Bilica) I also propagated, and had set fruit in 2nd year

best regards
Tome

That’s a nice tree, with a lot of history!

There has been a post on this forum with info about Dalmatian fig varieties: https://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/figs-from-east-adriatic-coast-4067027
Maybe there are more posts like this that could be helpful to ID your fig.

It seems like there are lots of different local varieties growing in Dalmatia. I remember from my vacation in Cavtat that figs where everywhere. Ten years ago I didn’t know that figs can also grow in my climate. Otherwise I would have brought a whole suitcase filled with cuttings back home :-)

he he.. , Timo, you should come again than (with a pair of XL suitcases :-))

There are many many more known and unknown varieties in regions of Dalmatia, Istria, Croatian coast etc. But not only in nowdays in Croatia but also in Herzegovinia, Montenegro etc. there are hundreds unidentified experimental crossings made during intensive agricultural era before industrialization approx.after WW2. Only on my small island there were known 20 superb sour cherry varieties and nowdays only two left commercially. Those are acclimatized disease free proven varieties quite usefull in future

So pleased to see the correspondence and participation of my fellow compatriots on this forum. Croatia and much of what used to be Yugoslavia has such a rich heritage and history with figs and it is wonderful to see shared it with the rest of the world..

regards,
Tony