Around mid past August have talked about and shown a fig propagated by birds certainly, and rooting/growing in between the two trunks of a 'gemini' palm tree... just open this link to get the story and pictures

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/the-sparrow-fig-6481106

Throughout that August this small parasitic fig sucking the juices of the palm, may have produced a couple of dozen figs, may be more, taken and eaten by  birds, by-passers, etc.. Decided not to pay excessive visits and look from the distance to try and be aware of what was going on, my objective being to have this tree ready to take some cuttings at the beginning of 2014.

Today, early morning decided to go to the place to find out if someone had taken any cuttings.
The fig is as it was before and nobody has apparently touched it...and under a bunch of leaves there was a fig, pictures enclosed.
Well over ripe for my taste but full of sugar and all those nice flavors of the black skinned figs, remembering me the Pastillière's

The water seed test done with the August fig was 'positive' - all seeds sunk. Today's fig, was just the opposite, very few on the bottom, the majority floating. May be it's a Common type.

Attached are some pictures and with a bit of luck I shall have four or five cuttings in Jan or February.
A nice Xmas gift to Aurora...

Francisco

thank you for sharing this story and fig. and also extra special thanks to mr. sparrow for his ever bold cultivation practices :)

looks fantastic 

Hi Francisco,
Do you think this may be Berbera by the shape and color inside?

 I love it!   This fig deserves a GREAT name.  Sparrow fig sounds good to me.
  I'll stand in line for years hoping you will someday have cuttings avaialble.

Soni

Thank you all for reading this thread, your commenting and looking at those pictures.

Tami, This new fig is much smaller than Bêbera and I am very curious to see what I may produce from a couple of its cuttings rooted properly...The Black Bèbera figs in my area are of a deep uniform  violet/black and its pulp tends to show a 'hollow'..The original Sparrow when ripe has shades of violet, dark brown and displays a particular glossy skin.. its pulp is full... of course this all change with this last fig collected a bit too late to show its full colors.
(see pics of a bêbera Preta)


Soni, I appreciate your comments. I also share your hopes

Francisco

Thanks for the pics Francisco. Seeing the 2 pictures it's easy to see the difference. Both of the look really delicious though :)

francisco, a brand new fig :) must be exciting.. looks like a winner too!

Thank you Tami and Pete,

Yes, it's a privilege witnessing an actual new tree being born and different from all others.

Just like as all figs were created in Nature, harvested, tasted,  baptized -  (many times !?)  and be now part of our orchards,  collections.

This particular fig, the Sparrow (if you agree !), was very lucky (so far) being left growing in peace, breasting all these 4, 5, 6 years (?)
in mother palm and practically untouched .

Birds alone are responsible for dispersing hundreds of thousands of fertile and non-fertile fig seeds in vast areas and given the average rooting conditions, a number of these seeds (fertile only)  will become baby trees over a season. Insects first, then rabbits, sheep, goats, some birds, will eat the great majority of these plants spread in the wild and I may say that probably not even one in one thousand (0.1%) will survive up to adulthood to show their very first fruit.

In inaccessible places, old walls, roofs, ravines, deep creeks, old wells etc.. where most of the herbivores cannot reach, it's where we found most of the wild and not so wild new figs.

Francisco

Black House Sparrow.

Pardal Preto