This is the description from Baud.

IGUIER - Ficus carica

COL of white lady


Fig Tree Col of Dame white: Fig of fall

synonyms: Col of Signora, Fraga.

Area of

fruiting culture: Unifère very late to thick skin, of excellent quality in taste. Fruit of 50 to 60 grams to flesh dark red. Do differs from other neck of lady that by the color of the epidermis.

Development of the important tree, of 5 to 8 meters in diameter for 3.5 to 5 meters in height according to the importance of interventions in size.

Cultivation area south area, everywhere where the rear-seasons are warm and ensolleillées.

I checked the description and photographs from a Spanish Nursery that sells Cuella and they are not
the same fig. So I've answered my own question.

I hate to tell people they are totally wrong but on this thread two statements are TOTALLY WRONG so here it goes:

1. Panachee is not in the Col de Dame family. It is not a Coll' de Dama Rimada, and I don't care what any placards said. Panachee is a variegated version of the Bordissota/Bourjasotte/Brogiotto cultivar, hence Panachee in spanish is also known as Bordossot Blanca Rimada. In order to be part of the Col de Dame family a fig must have the particular neck and Panachee does not. You do not need to be an expert or a geneticist to see this. This should also put to rest the rumor that Bourjasotte Grise has anything to do with Col de Dame. It does not. And for the record I do grow both Panachee and Coll' de Dama Rimada (MP) for several seasons so I also have personal observation on this.

2. Cuello de Dama in Spanish is occasionally used as a synonym for Col de Dame but let us remember that the Col de Dame variety is native to Catalunia and Mallorca, and not other regions of Spain. There, it is known in the Catalan language as Coll' de Dama and sometimes Coll' de Senyora. Cuello de Dama is an entirely different variety of fig native to the Extremadura region, near Badajoz. It is often used for dried figs and is entirely inferior to Col de Dame, which is one of the most superior figs grown in the world.

Rafael, perhaps I started this conversation by saying that the Panache was the closest in taste to the Col de Dame Blanc. I was making an observation based on personal experience when it comes to taste and not scientific research. My background as a scientist (not figs) tells me that research by academics is much more accurate than simple observation especially if genetic tests were performed.
So if a placard at the UCD fig tasting event said that "all of their research to date has led to them to believe that Panache is a Rimada within the CdD family", then I presume that it must be based on some lab research, which I take more seriously than my taste buds or what a fig looks like. The only way that this could be wrong is that if they placed the wrong placard next to the Panache. In the end many fig varieties are closely related, but some more than others.

Ray,
>>Is the Spanish fig Cuello de Dama Blanco the same as Col de Dame Blanc? 

No. As Rafael says they are 2 different varieties and Cuello de Dama Blanca (native to Extremadura) is regarded as an inferior variety compared to Coll de Dama Blanca (from Cataluña and Mallorca)

Here's Coll de Dama Blanca in Pon's Book:

 

And the same fig in a Mallorca's figs book:

 


Now, Cuello de Dama Blanca in the book "Variedades de Higuera" - a spanish book with several identified varieties:

 

In Spain, they name "Cuello de Dama Blanca" to a few slightly different figs according to the spanish region they are grown.

A spanish friend has this variety from Extremadura. Here's are a couple of photos of his figs:
 

 

Sas thank you for the reply, I actually love the taste of Panachee, it is an excellent fig, both lemony and berry like, but the Col de dame texture is clearly different, it is berry like but with a pasty texture, low on seeds and crunch.

Hey all, as promised a few pics of my Col de Dame. In a few days I will have perfectly ripe figs again, with pics also off course. Indeed the best tasting fig in my collection.

I picked a nice ripe one today and added the pics here below. The more I read about the CDD, especially since this thread, the more I start to doubt that this is an actual CDD. It kind of misses the thick neck, which is so characteristic for the type.

 



 
       

Thanks Jaime,

I was able to find similar info and pics at this Spanish nursery

http://viverosvipesa.com/listado.asp?familia=higuera

Ray

Wow, really great info everyone!!

Great question Mefhemi

Great photos, Stormy!

Love the research, Jamie!

Blue, love the details about your experience at the wolfskill meeting! I wish I could have been there (invited :-)). Maybe next time?

I have not tasted CdDB but i hope to do so in the next couple of years. However, I have tasted Panache and it is sbsolutely deliscious! Its a very flavorful fig. I just bought two trees because I felt it is worth the money. I hope they fruit next year.

Oh such great minds! Thanks all! I love it!

I had been communicating with John Preece, Malli, and Howard already on another matter and brought up this issue about Panache because it seems that they are quite confused about what fig Ira Condit was writing about when they decided to quote him about when Condit was writing about a chimera of Col di Signora Bianca.  Col di Signora is a snynonym of Col de Dame, of course (in his book Baud includes a synonym of Col de Signora which is close).  Condit himself made a great contribution to our knowledge of figs but also made many mistakes and may not have known exactly what he was writing about either since his comments did include the name Panache or, perhaps, there were different names in use at that time.  Condit's comments include the description of a fruit with a pyriform shape which is fitting for the CdD types but not the fig we know as Panache.

Here is a photo of the placard in question.

 

In 2006 Malli performed some basic DNA testing of the fig collection (a group of Jon, Sue, Darcy, and myself visited him in 2008 to discuss the methods and equipment, etc., FWIW) and a copy of a research report can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2860561/pdf/10709_2010_Article_9442.pdf and on page 7 it's pretty clear even with this basic testing that Col de Dame Blanc (cataloged as Col de Dame in GRIN) is not closely related to Panache, being shown separately even in the high level groups of G2 and G9. 

Panache and Col de Dame Blanc are certainly both great figs (as is Coll de Dama Rimada).

Thanks Harvey for pointing out that the saintly placard is based simply enough on an erroneous quote from Condit. If Condit tried to sell you the. Brooklyn Bridge for $1 that would not make it true. It should be plainly evident to any onlooker that a pyriform fig with a neck is completely different from an oblate fig with no neck and different pulp and leaves. And as for Alan's comment, Europe is not the LSU fig field. No one has been "breeding" figs there besides mother nature. All of these mutations are naturally occurring, and as we all know, the best way to come up with a unique fig is to have a bird crap a caprified seed that becomes a common fig. I attached the relevant, erroneous section from Condit's book. For over 1,000 years the papacy lied, in writing, about its earthly empire, basing it on a writing called "the donation of Constatantine." Braver men than myself proved it a forgery. I think we can all agree Condit may have made some mistakes too.

Wow Harvey, I need a whole weekend to make sense of this report, but one thing for sure DNA does not lie. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the clarification Harvey! This business of genetically testing figs is fascinating.

Thanks for the clarification Harvey! This business of genetically testing figs is fascinating.

To SAS and all others,
I start to think my reply is a bit off-topic. Confident about the true nature of this fig, my lovely wife bought it in a respected nursery about three years ago, I never asked myself if this could be a different type, until I joined this forum, silly me...:)
When we stopped by the same nursery just yesterday, I was struck by the sheer disorder in the different types of figs that they offer.
That's why I asked my wife to go back three years in time and try to remember where she picked it from. Now, at the time she came back home with just a picked fig, to let me taste it. The whole idea was if I would like it, then she would buy a tree from the same kind. I did like it, so about two weeks later, she picks up the tree, which she believes is a CDD, and brings it back home.
Since I still liked the figs that come off it, I am not displeased off course, but still, wanting to know the real type of fig I am eating has becoming a bit of a challenge actually.
And, I think I have found it on Calgoni. Now here are the pics from my alleged CDD.


   

The    
These pics come from their site, a striking ressemblence if you ask me.
They are labeled as "Cendrosa", nice name.