A guy local to me is selling this on Kijiji for $5. He just calls them Persian Fig Trees. I inquired and he says he grew them from seed. Has anyone ever seen leaves like this? He's making no claims about what it is...But it looks kind of cool

 

Even if it doesn't fruit, exceptionally nice leaves. Have his fruited?

Hi Joe.
I wish I could get one of them just the leaves.
Vito

That how my seedlings look during their first year.
The leaf shape changed a lot for the second year and further.

Is this a seedling?
Or grown from a cutting?

I saw Ice Crystal from nursery last year, it looked very pretty as well
Will your fig tree bear sweet fig?



 

This is identical to my Ficus afghanistanica.
The leaves are more similar to those of grape instead of fig, with serrated margin.
Last year i received toothpick size cuttings, and even after quite vigorous growth, the twigs stay very thin, therefore is a typical feature of this species.
I don't know the origin of my cuttings, if the mother plant is grown by seed, but i think it's likely to be a seedling; i don't know neither if its a caprifig: maybe no one has still yet seen a fruit from this "variety" so to say.

The Kijiji plant is probably a seedling from Iranian dry figs, and if you search for "Shirazi seedling" you can see some plants very similar to this.

Some people assert that F. afghanistanica (or johannis) does not exist as a species, but it's only a wild asian form of F. carica.
From what i could see, there are some features that make this plants quite different from other F. carica.
Ice crystal is another example.

Hi Joe,

Could it be what is described in the following link:

http://www.arthurleej.com/p-o-m-Aug08.html

Angela

OK - Seems to be a bit of interest so I found the old emails we exchanged. He wrote:

"I grew the figs from seeds of Persian figs.  It is my first time doing it.  The fruit was yellow, 
small and sweet.  I don't know if they give me fruit after few years.  I am waiting with hope."

So he had access to the fruit but these that he planted from seeds have not yet produced for him...

If there's some interest I could see what he has. If available I could pick up a few this weekend.

I'm curious.

Well. I emailed the guy and he wrote right back. He has two and I asked him if I could buy both. I'll see what other info I can get on it's background and post back here if everything works out...

@ Angela - That looks a whole lot like it... But this one is from seed so who knows in the end...

I saw the same ad last fall and was also interested in the nice looking leaves. I never did get the plant because it was a little far to drive. If your close its worth the $5.

If this was a known fig grown from pollinated seeds, wouldn't it be a unique type?

I just confirmed a time to meet the guy this Saturday. I don't get the sense he's a real fig wack-job like most of us here, so I doubt he dug deep into the history of this thing. He brought the fig back with him from Iran and planted the seeds here in Toronto....

I'll find out what I can and report back with more info and pics as soon as I have them...

@ tinyfish - Did you ever see the Kijiji ad from the guy with the nursery in Etobicoke? He's growing some big figs. Have to visit him this summer...

Guys , I would keep your expectations low.
You just just confirmed what I mentioned, they are the seedlings.
I would treat them as a house plant for quite a while in Canada.

Second what James said...Likely a house plant... Which is fine if you like the look of it.... And maybe we get lucky....

Still I will post what I get

 
 

Leaves on my F.afghanistanica.
Altough they are just sprouted, the difference from those of carica is evident.
The leaves remain small, and larger ones are less than half a common fig leaf.

I'm sure that this plant is a close relative of the plant showed by Joe.

Certainly looks similar. 

I'm unfamiliar with these. Are you saying they don't fall into the catagories of Common, San Pedro or Smyrna then?

Might you know if they're wasp dependant?

Edit - Does the "F" indicate female? I just googled one prefaced with a "M"

I don't know if mine is a caprifig or a female, nor a Smyrna, common, biferous, etc..., but being most likely a seedling it's unlikely to be parthenocarpic, and very likely to be a caprifig.

The "F." is an abbreviation for "Ficus", the capital letter + dot is used when we talk about different species of the same genus.

Yes! That could be popular here!

@ tinyfish - Did you ever see the Kijiji ad from the guy with the nursery in Etobicoke? He's growing some big figs. Have to visit him this summer...