My brother in law has a fig tree with branches that droop all the way to the ground. I've never seen a fig tree do that. It's a purple fig of unknown variety that he got from a neighbor on Long Island. Any thoughts on variety?

Hi,
That's called a weeping fig tree.
Yours looks healthy and beautiful !
There ain't no strain known to be like that except for one from Belleclare I think it was. There is a video on Utube were you can see that tree.
Sometimes a new rooted tree will mutate and show such a trait. I had that happen once, but didn't keep the tree.

I've got a Weeping Black that looks similar.  Notice (top right) how the branches leave the trunk at almost 90 degrees / horizontal.  Add some weight from brebas and main crop figs and then the branches droop.  

Coincidentally, I have a young Sumacki that is behaving similarly.  I joked to a friend recently that maybe it should be renamed Weeping White.

 

I think it's purty as it can be.  I bet you could train a tree to grow like that if you catch the limbs early enough and bend them.

I think its the same as the Weeping fig and Sal's Corelone.  The branch hang downward depending on how it is trained.  Nice looking tree!

I've been trying to root cuttings from this tree for two years with no luck. Saturday I convinced my brother in law to let me put an air layer on it...fingers crossed.

I think what you have there is a brother or sister to my tree Mine is a "BelleClare Italian Everbearing Sport" Being that you are in Long Island it's highly likely that thats what it is Here's a picture of my tree


   


Heres the BelleClare / Martha Stewart video where they talk about this tree 

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1896024/weeping-fig-pictures

You probably have the same variety - Black Weeping Fig, Sal's Corleone, Aldo's, Robin's Sicilian Black, etc., etc.