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Synonyms to fig varieties

A person going by an alias is still the SAME person.

Good for you for trying to sort this out. Seems like an impossible task though unless, As has already been mentioned, you have a very large amount of money to toss around and get some real accurate DNA testing done.
I'm no expert but from what I have read varieties of figs will change. The change can be caused by FMV or amount of FMV. Soil conditions, USDA hardiness zones, fertilization, age of tree. I'm sure theres other factors as well. I've seen this with other species of plants as well. They change and adapt depending on climate elevation, grower, fertilizers, ect..


Start a post and ask everyone who is growing VDB to post a photo. My guess is you can get a general concensus as to what the leaves are supposed to look like but nothing concrete. Same with flavor profile. Of course thats very subjective anyway.

Add to that the fact that there are probably thousands of varieties already and everytime a bird poos a new one is created. My guess is that in the US we may have 10-20% of the figs available worldwide. If you are able to catalog 100-200 varieties thats a monumental task in itself and worthy of doing if you are that dedicated to it.

When this project is complete, we will be able to identify ANY variety and see, also, that the list of varieties might shrink drastically. There will be almost no Unknowns if the information is used correctly. There aren't many mutations and new breeds of figs that humans don't already know about, but there are many, if not all fig varieties, that behave differently under different conditions and circumstances of growth.

I think your looking at this from a US perspective. You may be able to get this info for known US varieties but not for all varieties of the world. Not in one lifetime anyway.
How many varieties are there in Italy, Albania, Greece, the middle east, Asia, Russia ect.. Some may have made it here but for every one that does there is probably 10 that doesnt. If not more.
Again this info will be usefor for those of us in the US but for someone in portugal, maybe not so much. They may have 50 trees that we have never heard of.
I was looking through the grin database of grapes the other day. I think theres almost 1900 varieties. Figs less than 400 listed. How many are listed from Albania? Maybe 10 and theres probably 100 or more just in that one country alone. In Turkey there may be 100's as well. Granted some of them may have made it to Albania but just by looks and taste alone we will never know. And thats the real point. Unless you can do the DNA testing this will never truly be accurate.

Look at the confusion that already exists between the varieties in the US. I think also that less than 1/2 of them have even been released to the general public.

One thing I would suggest is see what countries have similar systems in place like our USDA germplasm repositories. You may be able to contact them in each country and get a list of the information they have available. If you can get a list from each country with photos of leaves and figs then you can at least do a visual analysis.

My guess is you will need 10-20 years if your going to do this on a worldwide basis. And thats full time work. As a hobbyist my guess is next to impossible. If you really want to do this though maybe look into writing a book and getting some sponsorship money to fund the project.

Jeff, You made some very valid points.
One promising note is that in many countries have fig germoplasm foundations/repository/banks established and growing and readily sharing information.  They seem to be focused mostly on their countries varieties and also some restoration efforts to bring back some of the ancient varieties that are no longer common. 
I found amazing that there is a fig germoplasm in Syria and they have some 130 fig varieties catalogued that are important to them for production and their culture.

Don't forget all the figs "out there".

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 HA HA  lots more !  and Charlie I'm preparing for them by adding AKA tags to some of mine, looking ahead to culling after I see how they do and how they compare with each other.  Just eliminating a few of my AKA's Kadota and VdB will free up some room, If Galbun is Jaruba and Genoa is White Naples, etc. etc   I may end up with only half of of what I have now..  More space  = NEW FIGS..  "Space the final frontier"

Jeff, 
thanks for the input,you brought up very valid and important point.
Just like you, who ever wants to add their opinion and/or additional information to help towards the accomplishment of this project can and do add it here on this thread or they have been PMing me or E-mailing. There is so much data to be sorted and put together (and it's only ONE of me, LOL).
You heard about the Los Angeles Fig Forest .com right? There will be a lot of research conducted there which may contribute to "Synonym" project.
No one says it's an easy task but collectively we will achieve this :)
It's just a matter of time.

Aaron if your hiring and need someone to travel the world to catalog varieties then I am available. I have a passport and a camera and a large appetite so I can eat some figs.

Charlie your right, theres a lot of figs "Out there". :).

Pino, Thats good info. I fig ured other countries would have a similar system as us. I see UCD has many unreleased and in Quarantine varieties. I am guessing that they may have some sort of excahnge set up with other countries unless they actually travel there to get new varieties. If the latter I want a job with them. :).

Jeff
I like the way you think.  Maybe it is also time for me to pack in my PC and apply for one of those fig germoplasm research jobs in Italy or France.

An issue with trying to nail down all figs is that each seedling is genetically unique.  Every time a fig seed germinates and it's clones get disseminated by humans, you end up with a new variety whether named or un-named.  Consequently the number of varieties out there is virtually endless.  God bless.

Marcus 

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