There are leaves that have 3,5,7 or 9 major feeding veins on the leaves. Do we have any evidence that this is constant so we can use to help identify fig varieties?

I think so.  The number of veins tend to match the number of lobes.  But sometimes a lobe is not very pronounced, yet you can sometime see a vein for it.  I believe that is one clue to help match on along with other characteristics of leaves, fruits, growth habits.  Of course, FMV can really make a leaf look different than it should, including the vein structure.

The problem being trees like mine that have leaves with one, three and five lobes....

that's what I am thinking too, this information to be use just to narrow down the possibilities.

Should work well. I have 1 lobe, 3 lobe, 5 lobe and 7 lobe leaves on my Vista. I wonder which number of lobes will correctly identify it?  ;-))

Jon, very interesting... this is all new to me, and really not sure if it would serve the cause to narrow down the ID... I wander if number of veins are  also (same time) effected by the growth stages of the branch... I have noticed the leaf shape get more and more complex with each new leaf on the growing young branch thus creating a Growing Pattern of Changes. Just a thought.

See I have been wondering about the smell and if you can tell by the a distinctive smell if they come from the same family. I noticed with the Celeste has a distinctive smell and other Celeste tree cuttings I was given smelled like mine.... I have run across other cutting that smell similar but not exactly the same...... Jon can I come sniff your cuttings??

my my Gloria, ... who would've thought, LOL

So I take it I'm alone in noticing different smells on cuttings....I'm cursed with a very strong sense of smell...not a fun thing to have on a hot day in NYC

Absolutely they have different smells.  I've noticed my RdB has completely different smell from anything else I have.  At the time, that was the only long fingered one I had (brunswick-ish?).  I'll have a lot more variety this year for comparison.   Some say that some trees smell of cat pee.. ewww..

Not sure I want to grow that one.... ewwww

cat pee part is so true...i did notice that under a strong sun.
Gloria I thought you were sarcastic with it all... my apologies... though smell part is co complex, and then..., how would one classify the smells to help ID fig varieties?

I was just wondering if it could tell you family... I got a couple of other like i said that smelled a little like the Celeste but aren't... so it made me wonder if they came from the same fam....
No worries Aaron I know it is an odd thing to consider... that is only with the cutting, my tree smells of figs when it is leafed out and has fun sun.

Don't lie. How many people here have sniffed their cuttings. I hadn't considered the odor of a cutting. I was speaking if the leaves. I'll have to pay more attention to it. If my wife catches me sniffing them, she probably just ship me off to an assisted living facility.

besides the smell part, (which is very interesting) I want to find out fore on Feeding Vein structure patterns... this could lead to something that has never been thought of about the relationship with variety.

 

These come from the same tree, half one way, half the other, and parts that have any one shape vary from year to year.

it is a Hybreed Jon? the one on right looks just like a Mulberry leaf. They don't even have same amount of feeding veins

Found this poking around the web...

awesome info... thanks Brent.
what is AD, LS, FN or LN?