Hi! Everyone,

The owner of these fig trees is from Portugal. She told me that her trees are Gota de Mel and Gota de Mel was from Portugal. Her Portuguese friend gave her the cuttings 8 years ago. Her trees bear 2 crops per year. The breba crops are larger than the main crops. Both breba and main crops have greenish yellow skins and fully ripened figs have dark-purplish red pulps. There were so aromatic, very sweet, crunchy, jammy with a taste of strawberry flavor when they are fully ripe. Honey will leak out at their eyes when they are fully ripe. The skins taste crunchy and also, skins can be peeled like a banana. Three or more years old branches have leaf shapes like Black Madeira; however, one to two years old branches and all suckers have leaf shapes like Col De Dame. Most of the figs pictured below were not fully ripe yet. I just picked them for the photos. The owners ate all the ripened figs by the time the photos were taken. Thank you for watching my photos.























































































































































Best,
Tam

Wow, they look great!

Thanks Bob,

Best,
Tam

Looks yummy. =)

Wow beautiful!

Thanks everyone.

Best,
Tam

Beautiful tree and leaveshape!
Thanks for sharing.

lovely, luxurient trees. you have a great  camera. thanks.

Great pictures Tam.I think that Gota de Mel maybe the same as Pingo de Mel because gota and pingo both mean drop so the translation would be Drop of Honey.I could be wrong but they probably are the same tree...Francisco or Nelson might be able to help you...good luck!


                                                                                                   Manny

Beautiful , healthy tree with beautiful fruit ! Thanks for sharing Tam. My Pingo de Mel is young . If they are the same , I hope it looks like this tree !!

Thanks everyone for looking at my photos. 

Manny: Franciso, Nelson or perhaps Herman2 may have more information about this fig tree. Thank you.

Best,
Tam 

Wonderful photos, beautiful tree and fruits!!

Great photo's and thanks.

Thanks: Everyone.

Does anyone have Gato de Mel or Pingo de Mel, please post photos of fruits and leaves so we can compare. The owner of these trees said that her trees are the Gota de Mel, not the Pingo de Mel. Thank you. 

Best,
Tam

Nice pics. You are so lucky, you have amazing connections!

Calvin: Thank you for watching my photos.

Best,
Tam

Tam,

You have there a very nice fig and your pictures are super.
This fig does not seem to be a Pingo de Mel.
Fruit shape , leaves and fig pulp do not match the Pingo de Mel I know.
Pingo de Mel and Kadota are very close figs, both with golden syrupy pulps,which may switch to pink, light redish if caprificated. Pingo de Mel produces a breba crop in June and the main crop does not require caprification to ripen.
On the other hand I was up to now convinced that 'Gota de Miel' was the name this same fig gets in Spain.
It would help a lot to get from the people who owns the tree more precise information on its origins. If the origin is Madeira, there is a chance that it could be a Bacorinho.
May be Nelson can bring some light on the subject.

Francisco

Tam, it looks like a great (though late) fig for our area.  I don't suppose this is the same as the fig I got from you called Mai's unknown which is also supposed to have derived from Portugal?  Probably not  since my notes say the Mai's unknown is supposed to be a dark fig but I thought I would check to make sure.  If you learn anything more about Mai's unknown please let me know - thanks!

Hi! Francisco,

How are you? Thank you for your comments on this Gota de Mel. I remembered the owner also told me that the English name for her tree is DRAP HONEY (not drop honey). Can you please post some leaf photos of Pingo de Mel when you have a chance. The owner told me that if her tree were a single trunk and left unpruned for 3 or more years, all the leaves on that tree will look like the leaves of the Black Madeira. However, once the tree is pruned, the current and second year grows of the same branches will have leaf shapes like Col De Dame. If that tree is unpruned for the next 2 years, than on the 3 year that same branches will have leaf shapes like Black Madeira. I will ask the owner again for more information when I have a chance to come there. Thank you.

Best,
Tam

Hi Tam,

Thank you, I am not aware of all those intricate leaf 'metamorphosis' on the Pingo de Mel
cultivar. It has on its back at least some 8 or 10 synonyms and I accept that there will be various strains, as well as the wasp contribution on certain regions, making figs to appear somehow different.

The link I am attaching to this message respects the pure and genuine Pingo de Mel as it is all over southern Portugal and this particular one was not affected by any wasp intrusion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lampo2012/sets/72157631002380680/

Francisco

Hi! Francisco,

Thank you for the link of your Pingo de Mel's  photos. Please look at my pictures above: single, three lobed leaves and three lobed leaves with 2 thumbs, are these leaf shapes belong to Madeira's fig cultivars ? Please let me know when you have a chance. Thank you.

Best,
Tam 

Beautiful pictures! I love the ones of the peeled figs. :-)

Tam,

I shall try and find out how do they look over there.

Francisco

Thanks Francisco and Tamar.

Best,
Tam

This is a great looking fig, good find Tam.

As mentioned before gota de Mel and pingo de Mel do mean the exact same thing thing drop of honey.

Regardless both are are generally the same and honey figs with amber to carmine pulp.

This is something else looks great what ever it is.

Ps it is possible it's known as such in that particular town.

You should ask them where in Portugal this fig originated from.