Hello. I was wondering if anyone knew if some of the other fig bearing members of the ficus family need caprification. Some that I have found include: ficus punctata (Panama), ficus vaccinioides, ficus sarmentosa, ficus virens, ficus pumila (quercifolia), Ficus sansibarica, ficus aspera, ficus sur, ficus roxburghii, ficus racemosa, ficus nerifolia, and ficus sur. Ever since I saw a picture of an Indian cluster fig I have been utterly fascinated. They grow strange looking fruit in strange places! Unfortunately I live too far north for fig wasps. If anyone has any information on this I'd greatly appreciate. It's difficult to find this sort of information on the web since these varieties are all very uncommon here.

There's a Ficus auriculata or Elephant Ear fig growing on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. The new leaves come out red. Wikipedia says the plant is pollinated by the wasp Ceratosolen emarginatus. It had a lot of figs on it. I pulled off one of the figs when no one was looking but it was hollow inside and I wasn't sure if it was eatable or not. It spreads out and takes up a large part of the patio where it's planted.

Not far from it is what looks like a Ficus religiosa, Bodhi or Pepal (people) tree. It drips little berry sized figs in the spring. It's planted near an ATM and a snack center. It was fun to come out after my class in Buddhism, sit by it and snack. Wikipedia doesn't say if it needs a special wasp or not.

I'm reading a great book now for a class, People Trees by David Haberman. He writes about tree worship in Northern India, focusing on three trees. Two of them are figs; the pepal tree and the banyan.

The location for a number of scenes from the 1995 movie "Zamaana Deewana" was in a most amazing house built around and into a banyan tree. I've tried to find out the name of the location but never could.  

I honestly never realized there was more than one type of fig wasp! Also, i don't really want to eat caprified figs after reading that link you posted, I just envision crunching on dead wasps and eggs I cannot see or taste. As I understood it, wasps pollinate any fig that is in their target audience for lack of a better term, but some need wasps or they drop the fruit. Pretty cool your elephant ear fig, I've never heard of them. if other ficus need wasps to bear fruit that would make them closer to smyrnia carica type figs?

Mara,

One more Auriculata grows at the Huntington Gardens. I posted a few photos some time ago:
http://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/10248-ficus-auriculata

I checked it last week and the figs were still hard. I am not sure we have the wasp Ceratosolen emarginatus in the vicinity though and I do not know how to check if the Huntington’s fig has been pollinated. 
I general, they keep the Garden a fig free place. They consider it a very invasive weed and pull all seedling as soon as they see them.

Thanks for the information on the Ficus at the Huntington. I haven't been there since they dug up their heirloom rose garden of heritage roses and put in a lotus pond. I'll look for the tree next time I go there. 

I would assume the only sure way to test caprification would be to germinate seeds. But then again, some varieties of carica like black mission and rarely Celeste for instance can sometimes have viable seeds without caprification. Though I've read that only 20% have fruit of the same size, taste and color and the other 80% are considered inferior to the mother.so maybe only by growing indoors can we find out for sure...

If the majority of the seeds sink in the water, they have been caprified. I was thinking to do that but cannot tell for how long to wait until the figs are ripe.

Mara, they finished building the main entrance with a huge cafe and a long terrace. It looks very different now.
The tree is not far from the open theater where the orchestra plays, next to a waterfall as you enter the dense vegetation area from the open grass.

I just recalled that I saw one more Ficus with figs, a Sycamore :
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/sycamore-fig-6552212?highlight=ficus&pid=1279756364#post1279756364

The tree is huge, it is at the Arcadia Arboretum. I do not know if they are edible for humans.

This place you two are talking about sounds amazing! And it is generally safe to assume that if a bird can eat a fruit it won't kill a human outright. Taste on the other hand. ...