Southern Brown Turkey do not have a red eye,from the point of Embryos inception,like it was described by certain authors.
They describe California BT,when they say that.
Ca BT is the only one that has a red eye in the early stage of embryos.
Southern BT has a green to white eye,till close to ripe when it turn to pink.

Here is another picture of a leaf of a variant of Southern Brown Turkey. This is what Hanc Mathies called his English Brown Turkey.

Much later after seeing pictures of the fruit, Herman Identified it as a Southern Brown Turkey.

As you can see from the leaves, Hanc's English Brown Turkey aka Southern Brown Turkey, can produce some massive leaves. Plus, here in Connecticut it's a very strong grower. It seems also to be able resist FMV with ease.  

Our plant is only two years old. But, it is already over six feet tall.

We got our start from a good friend and fellow collector, who got his start directly from Hanc.

Bob @ T. Pine - Connecticut Zone 5b/6a

The Pix in Post 11,is California Brown Turkey!.
I want to point out that ,the fact that is insipid in many places where it is grown,is not because the cultivar is bad,but:
Because the climate is not enough good for this cultivar.
California Brown Turkey,also called Black Jack,and many other names,is a cultivar that require ,a long warm Summer with delicate temperatures,not too hot,(over 95),not too cool,(under 70),in order to properly ripe fruits.
It seem that not even Jon Verdick in San Diego climate,have the right condition for getting it ripe and that is why he find the fruits bland.
I can testify,that when they are properly ripe they are delicious.
I got  some properly ripe Ca Brown Turkey at the Roseville Farmers market,north of Sacramento City,25 years ago,and I can tell you they were delicious.
Unlike what the tree produced in my Backyard,which were ,yes Bland insipid fruits.

ascpete   Will take picture of babies and parent plant to post tomorrow.  Plant has a very open growth habit as compared to my Celestes which have a very dense canopy. thx.

ascpete

Here are some pictures of my " Brown Turkey". Potted baby picture was taken with flash so leaf color is more yellow than the actual leaf color. Have also included pictures of the parent plant and a 2nd year in ground baby from the parent plant. Mature leaves are 10-12" in length. Parent is about 5 years old and fruit size is still increasing each year. Most of the figs are 2"-3" long now and will plump up to a more rounded shape with a shorter neck than the more elongated immature fig shape shown in the pictures.  Fruit will be tan with a stripy pink blush and the interior flesh will be a pinkish tan color.  Potted baby group shows Celeste and Brown Turkey babies.  Celestes are in the front and the Brown Turkey in the back. Leaf shapes are dramatically different even to a novice like me.

Hi Marianna,
                IMO the leaves of your photos 1,3,4,5,and 6 resemble Brunswick aka Magnolia.The shape of the figs in photo 6 also resembles Brunswick. Post some photos of the figs and a cut fig once they become ripe.

Brunswick :    http://figs4fun.com/Thumbnail_Brunswick.html

@Marianna
Magnolia/Brunswick, no doubt, great tree here.

Thanks Danny and Barry.  Will post a picture of my Figs when they ripen.

I had looked at putting Magnolia on my "to grow list" but from some of my reading thought perhaps being on the mountainous edge of 7b and zone 6 that they might be too tender even when grown in bush form. Guess not, they seem to be thriving.  Did bury them the first couple of years but now I just fertilize with horse manure and lime after a couple of hard frosts and heap up a very thick layer of composted wood chip mulch over the fertilizer around the trunk and root zone before the coldest months come. The heavy mulch protects the tree from frequent freezing and thawing and helps maintain a steadier level of moisture during the winter months. I pull it back just before the start of the growing season and remove any ground layers I started the previous year to their own pots.  They have been problem free trees so far. 

Barry, Grant,
Thanks for posting the pictures. from my limited observations the SBT and Celeste are very similar, but the difference is in the figs, The Celeste has a long stem and tapered neck, while the Southern Brown Turkey has a short neck and stem and is "rounder". I have attached a few reference pictures of different Celeste and a Brown turkey and their fig stem attachments.

Marianna,
Thanks for posting the pictures.
It doesn't appear from the leaves that you have a brown turkey. You will have to post pictures of ripe figs and a cut section to better confirm ID. There are several cultivars with similar leaves, Brunswick and Magnolia being two.

Bob "robertharper",
I have observed that massive leaves are usually formed when there is a growth spurt, Its also usually accompanied by long internode spaces. My Black Jack produced giant leaves (almost 12 inches across) in April after it was up potted, given its first major fertilizer of the season and introduced to more sunlight.
Thanks for posting and referencing Hank Mathies, It jogged my memory of your post about him and his connection to Edible Landscaping.
Due to the fact that my fig in post #10 was labeled "English Brown Turkey" and the leaf and fruit are similar to Southern Brown Turkey, I can hypothesize that this may be the same cultivar.
 

  
 

Here's my first Texas EverBearing Fig from a small plant in a container that I purchased a couple of month ago from my Local HD. Some people call it Brown Turkey. It does not look like Brown Turkey!

Mine does not have red eye at first but does well before it ripens, I would say like half way through its growing stage. Im not sure what mine is... have posted a separate topic trying to figure it out and this topic was pointed out to me. I am a little confused still at what this eye means?

Seeking supplier/donor for a few cuttings for "Brown Turkey" suitable for north/central Alabama (Birmingham)--only need enough to produce 2-3 trees.

We have moderate winters but very hot and often unpredictable summers in terms of drought or too much rain. The "Celeste" is suppose to be an Alabama favourite but mine has dropped its green fruits before ripening more years than not due to odd weather. Hoping the Brown Turkey will be a better match.

FYI, My LSU Purple has been a winner--never dropping--and producing wonderful, bountiful fruit! Just want another tree for variety. i also have a Lemon Fig, but it is not much of a producer.

Other suggestions welcomed!

Recomer20:  It sounds like your weather is much like mine in SC. I found out this year that I have been growing Magnolia instead of Brown Turkey. I grow them outdoors and have a couple of 4 or 5 year old bushes which are about 6'-7' tall and 8-10' wide. This year they were covered with hundreds of fruits.  With all the rain, these grew to the size of small lopsided bronzy colored pears and were just softening up.  I had some minor cracking around the eye. I went out yesterday to find that the netting around them had been torn up overnight and my trees were covered in half eaten fruit. After loosing my Celestes to deer and thinking I had sort of solved my fig problems for the moment, it was a big disappointment.  That aside, I can say that this variety does very well in high heat, high humidity and in both drought and wet conditions. It has been a vigorous grower. If you are interested, I will have cuttings to share. I was so disgusted yesterday I did not look to see if any of the riper fruit had been spared, but if I can find anything suitable, I will post a picture both to better ascertain the variety and to give you an idea of size. Compared to my Celestes, these are huge and 4-5 would make a handful.

Ok here goes an attempt to upload pics from the new camera which have been downsized.  GR8Figs, do you still think they are Brunswick/Magnolia? Recomer20, this is what the fruit looks like on the plants which were supposed to be Brown Turkey. Pics are some of the smaller ones and not quite ripe but critters got all the good ones from top to bottoms of my trees. I see highly electrified metal fencing in my future for next year.

Marianna,
I don't have a Brunswick but I have been convinced that is what you have since your 1st pics. The ripe fruit confirms it further.

@cis4elk. Calvin, thanks for the confirmation...another mislabeled tree but one that performs very well in this climate. Sweet sort of mellony flavored when not quite ripe but quite fruity/figgy and nicely crunchy when it is fully ripe. Every year it gets better and better. This is the only year I have had any splitting on this fig but then again we normally only get 47" of rain a year and were have received close to 100" already.  Any more and and my trees will need to sprout swimfins.

;My brown turkey figs here in SW Tennessee.

Ok, I'm confused.  Pictures in post #2 look like my grandmothers figs that I grew up with and Herman2 states these are Southern Brown Turkey.  But pictures in posts #12 & #42 are also called Brown Turkey, which look exactly like my neighbors figs.  However, the pics in #2 look nothing like #12 & #42.  Are they each a different type of Brown Turkey?

I am no expert on figs but since I discovered my brown turkey was not a brown turkey, I have been trying to wend my way through BT genealogy and figure out whether and what I want from the Brown Turkey family. Please someone, jump in and correct me if I have put this together incorrectly.

There are two major Brown Turkey Cultivars, the English Brown Turkey and the Southern Brown Turkey.  There are also several woods colts in the Brown Turkey family : Hardy Chicago, California Brown Turkey, Maryland Berry and Texas Everbearing to name the most common.  Hardy Chicago and Maryland Berry are known for their cold hardiness. Texas Everbearing is the red/purple skinned variant and has either less or smaller seeds than other varieties. Southern BT is a staple in the SE and performs well in high humidity and heat.  If Joseph had a coat of many colors, so does the BT. I have seen brown, tan, maroon, dark red, purple and insipid looking stripy critters as examples of this fig. What does come through is that they all seem to be reliable workhorses when it comes to production and they are easy to grow even for people with less than green thumbs. Some varieties such as the California variant are considered somewhat bland in taste while others such as the Hardy Chicago and the Maryland Berry appear to have a stronger berry flavor to their fruit.  Since BT are such a mainstay variety and sold everywhere, most big box stores sell them and due to human error, tags fall off, get switched or whatever the reason, it appears to be one of the most frequently mislabeled figs sold. My tree was a classic example.  It was the grandmother of 20 figlets before I learned it wasn't a BT of any sort.

Jules,
In this Topic, there are three (3) different cultivars that are identified as "Brown Turkey", they are California, English and Southern.

Post #2 and #42 represent Southern Brown Turkey which has leaves and figs that resemble Celeste, Just slightly larger figs, with a breba crop, these figs are small sized. The eyes change color from white/green to pink only after the fig starts to swell and ripen, similar to Celeste.

Post #12 represents English Brown Turkey (sometimes called Eastern Brown Turkey), it has leaves that resemble a slightly more defined 5 lobed Alma and the figs are medium sized. The eyes are a pink color well before they are ripe (for more than a month).

Then there is the California Brown Turkey that produces a large sized fig with an open eye.The eye is a pink color as soon as the figlet is fully formed, it enlarges and darkens when the fig ripens. This fig needs a warm dry climates to ripen properly due to the large eye and the length of time needed to properly ripen once the eyes open.


Marianna,
There are three (3) distinct Brown Turkey groups as described above. Hardy Chicago and Maryland Berry are not Brown Turkeys.
The name Texas Everbearing has been applied to all three (3) Brown Turkey Cultivars and to many other Cultivars dependent on the whims of the Nursery supplying the trees, as an example,  post #35 which looks to be an LSU Purple. From the LSU field day posts it seem that they call the English Brown Turkey... Texas Everbearing.

I personally set out to clarify the Brown Turkey confusion because of the Cold Hardy and Productive reputation of "Brown Turkey" fig trees. From my experience with English and California from last season, the California is not cold hardy, all 4 trees died from the cold, the English had minor dieback, they were all exposed to the same 15 deg F temperatures. The Southern Brown Turkey is a very tasty fig, and hopefully it will be Cold Hardy in my zone (trials). From my observations, one reason why it seems to be a good cultivar for humid climates is that the figs ripen quickly once they start to swell.

Keep in mind that there are differences that develop through cultural practices, disease and mutations, but real Brown Turkeys still fall within these three (3) Cultivar groups.

BTW, your "Brown Turkey" looks to be a Brunswick or Magnolia cultivar.

Pete, thanks for the clarification.  Sounds like if you cannot see a producing plant, and can tell them apart yourself, It might be difficult to know what you are getting unless you get it from a F4F member who can tell you what it is or a nursery who can tell you what cultiivar it is.  I had noticed that there was quite a difference in coloration and shape of figs sold as Texas Everbearing. Makes more sense now.

Bump

Thanks, Pete, I appreciate the lesson on brown turkeys.   I think I need to get one each of the English and the Southern so I can decide which is closer to what I grew up eating.  

Marianna,
No doubt, your pictures are of a Magnolia/Brunswick.  The Texas Everbearing that I see around East Texas looks like a Magnolia, at least the leaf does.  I am sure that the Texas Everbearing and the Southern Brown Turkey are NOT the same fig.  I do not think that the Texas Everbearing is a specific cultivar and is most likely a variant of the Magnolia.  I have the English and the Southern and when placed side by side there is a distinct difference, size and shape are way different, with the English being larger and flat bottomed.  The English also is true to color, Brown, always on the trees around here.

I have the English Brown Turkey cuttings available for trade.  They are extremely forgiving and roots very easily.

Thought I would add pics of a local fig that I think matches Southern Brown Turkey. The tree is shaded but overhangs warm asphalt so I assume that is why the coloration is good. These figs had a strong flavor that reminded me of cranberry and had little sweetness until over-ripe, maybe due to the shade.