Fig
The fig is the edible fruit of Ficus carica, a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world. Ficus carica is the type species of the genus Ficus, which comprises over 800 tropical and subtropical plant species.
A fig plant is a deciduous tree or large shrub, growing up to tall, with smooth white bark. Its large leaves have three to five deep lobes. Its fruit is teardrop-shaped, long, initially green but may ripen toward purple or brown, and has sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. The milky sap of the green parts of the plant is an irritant to human skin. In the Northern hemisphere, fresh figs are in season from early August to early October. They tolerate moderate seasonal drought and can be grown even in hot-summer continental climates.
Figs can be eaten fresh or dried, or processed into jam, rolls, biscuits and other types of desserts. Since ripe fresh figs are easily damaged in transport and do not keep well, most commercial production is in dried and processed forms. Raw figs contain roughly 80% water and 20% carbohydrates, with negligible protein, fat and micronutrient content. They are a moderate source of dietary fiber.
In 2018, world production of raw figs was 1.14 million tonnes, led by Turkey and North African countries as the largest producers, collectively accounting for 64% of the total.
Etymology
The word fig, first recorded in English in the 13th century, derives from French figue, itself from Occitan figa, from Romance *fica, from Classical Latin ficus. Italian has fico, directly derived from Latin ficus. The name of the caprifig, Ficus caprificus Risso, is derived both from Latin caper, genitive capri and English fig.Biology
Description
Ficus carica is a gynodioecious, deciduous tree or large shrub that grows up to tall, with smooth white bark. Its fragrant leaves are long and wide, and are deeply lobed.The fig fruit develops as a hollow, fleshy structure called the syconium that is lined internally with numerous unisexual flowers. The tiny flowers bloom inside this cup-like structure. Although commonly called a fruit, the syconium is botanically an infructescence, a type of multiple fruit. The small fig flowers and later small single-seeded fruits line its interior surface. A small opening or ostiole, visible on the middle of the fruit, is a narrow passage that allows the specialized fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes, to enter the inflorescence and pollinate the flowers, after which each fertilized ovule develops into a seed. At maturity, these 'seeds' line the inside of each fig.
The edible mature syconium develops into a fleshy false fruit bearing the numerous one-seeded fruits, which are technically drupelets. The whole fig fruit is long, with a green skin that sometimes ripens toward purple or brown. Ficus carica has milky sap, produced by laticifer cells. The sap of the green parts is an irritant to human skin.
Habitat
The common fig tree has been cultivated since ancient times and grows wild in dry and sunny locations with deep and fresh soil, and in rocky locations that are at sea level to 1,700 metres in elevation. It prefers relatively porous and freely draining soil, and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Unlike other fig species, Ficus carica does not always require pollination by a wasp or from another tree, but can be pollinated by the fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes, to produce seeds. Fig wasps are not present to pollinate in colder regions such as the British Isles.The species has become naturalized in scattered locations in Asia and North America.
The plant tolerates seasonal drought, and the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean climates are especially suitable to it. Situated in a favorable habitat, mature specimens can grow to considerable size as large, dense, shade trees. Its aggressive root system precludes its cultivation in many urban locations, yet in nature this characteristic helps the plant to root in the most inhospitable locations. Having a great need of water, it is mostly a phreatophyte that extracts the needed water from sources in or on the ground. Consequently, it frequently grows in locations with standing or running water, e. g. in valleys of rivers and in ravines that collect water. The deeply rooted plant searches for groundwater in aquifers, ravines, or cracks in rocks. With access to this water, the tree cools the hot environments in which it grows, thus producing fresh and pleasant habitat for many animals that shelter in its shade during periods of intense heat.
The mountain or rock fig is a wild variety, tolerant of cold dry climates, of the semi-arid rocky montane regions of Iran, especially in the Kūhestān mountains of Khorasan.
Ecology
Ficus carica is dispersed by birds and mammals that scatter their seeds in droppings. Fig fruit is an important food source for much of the fauna in some areas, and the tree owes its expansion to those that feed on its fruit. The common fig tree also sprouts from the root and stolon tissues.Cultivation
From ancient times
The edible fig is one of the first plants that were cultivated by humans. Nine subfossil figs of a parthenocarpic type dating to about 9400–9200 BC were found in the early Neolithic village Gilgal I. The find precedes the domestication of wheat, barley, and legumes, and may thus be the first known instance of agriculture. It is proposed that this sterile but desirable type was planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated.In ancient Israel, figs were a staple crop and widely cultivated for both fresh consumption and preservation. Archaeological evidence from sites such as Tel Beit Shemesh reveals that pressed figs were stored in jars. Fig trees thrived in the region's dry, rocky soil and yielded two annual harvests: an early crop eaten fresh, and a later summer crop that was dried or pressed into fig-cakes for preservation and travel. Fig trees are frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and are depicted in the Lachish reliefs alongside grapevines and date palms, confirming their place in the cultivated landscape of Judah.
Figs were widespread in ancient Greece, and their cultivation was described by both Aristotle and Theophrastus. Aristotle noted that as in animal sexes, figs have individuals of two kinds, one that bears fruit, and one that assists the other to bear fruit. Further, Aristotle recorded that the fruits of the wild fig contain psenes ; these begin life as larvae, and the adult psen splits its "skin" and flies out of the fig to find and enter a cultivated fig, saving it from dropping. Theophrastus observed that just as date palms have male and female flowers, and that farmers help by scattering "dust" from the male onto the female, and as a male fish releases his milt over the female's eggs, so Greek farmers tie wild figs to cultivated trees. They do not say directly that figs reproduce sexually, however.
Figs were also a common food source for the Romans. Cato the Elder, in his De Agri Cultura, lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian. The fruits were used, among other things, to fatten geese for the production of a precursor of foie gras. Rome's first emperor, Augustus, was reputed to have been poisoned with figs from his garden smeared with poison by his wife Livia. For this reason, or perhaps because of her horticultural expertise, a variety of fig known as the Liviana was cultivated in Roman gardens.
It was cultivated from Afghanistan to Portugal, also grown in Pithoragarh in the Kumaon hills of India. From the 15th century onwards, it was grown in areas including Northern Europe and the New World. In the 16th century, Cardinal Reginald Pole introduced fig trees to Lambeth Palace in London.
In 1769, Spanish missionaries led by Junipero Serra brought the first figs to California. The Mission variety, which they cultivated, is still popular. The fact that it is parthenocarpic made it an ideal cultivar for introduction.
The Kadota cultivar is even older, being mentioned by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD. Pliny recorded thirty varieties of figs.
The name Kadota did not exist in the era of Pliny the Elder nor is it mentioned in Pliny's works. Also only 29 figs were recorded in his work; Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, English translation by John Bostock and H.T. Riley, Book XV, CHAP. 19. —TWENTY-NINE VARIETIES OF THE FIG.
The Kadota name was created in the early 20th century in California, US, to name a "sport" or genetic deviation from a Dotatto fig tree as documented in The Kadota Fig: A Treatise On Its Origin, Planting And Care by W. Sam Clark.
Modern
The common fig is grown for its edible fruit throughout the temperate world. It is also grown as an ornamental tree, and in the UK the cultivars 'Brown Turkey' and 'Ice Crystal' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.Figs are also grown in Germany, mainly in private gardens inside built up areas. There is no commercial fig growing. The Palatine region in the German South West has an estimated 80,000 fig trees. The variety Brown Turkey is the most widespread in the region. There are about a dozen quite widespread varieties hardy enough to survive winter outdoors mostly without special protection. There are even two local varieties, "Martinsfeige" and "Lussheim", which may be the hardiest varieties in the region.
As the population of California grew, especially after the gold rush, a number of other cultivars were brought there by persons and nurserymen from the east coast of the US and from France and England. By the end of the 19th century, it became apparent that California had the potential for being an ideal fig producing state because of its Mediterranean-like climate and latitude of 38 degrees, lining up San Francisco with İzmir, Turkey. G. P. Rixford first brought true Smyrna figs to California in 1880. The most popular cultivar of Smyrna-type fig in California is the Turkish Lob Injir, sold under the name , which has been grown in Turkey for centuries and was brought to California in the latter part of the 19th century.
Figs can be found in continental climates with hot summers as far north as Hungary and Moravia. Thousands of cultivars, most named, have been developed as human migration brought the fig to many places outside its natural range. Fig plants can be propagated by seed or by vegetative methods. Vegetative propagation is quicker and more reliable, as it does not yield the inedible caprifigs. Seeds germinate readily in moist conditions and grow rapidly once established. For vegetative propagation, shoots with buds can be planted in well-watered soil in the spring or summer, or a branch can be scratched to expose the bast and pinned to the ground to allow roots to develop.
Two crops of figs can be produced each year. The first or breba crop develops in the spring on last year's shoot growth. The main fig crop develops on the current year's shoot growth and ripens in the late summer or fall. The main crop is generally superior in quantity and quality, but some cultivars such as 'Black Mission', 'Croisic', and 'Ventura' produce good breba crops.
There are three types of edible figs:
- Persistent figs have all female flowers that do not need pollination for fruiting; the fruit can develop through parthenocarpic means. This is a popular horticulture fig for home gardeners. Dottato, Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Brunswick, and Celeste are some representative cultivars.
- Caducous figs require cross pollination by the fig wasp with pollen from caprifigs for the fruit to mature. If not pollinated the immature fruits drop. Some cultivars are Marabout, Inchàrio, and Zidi.
- Intermediate figs set an unpollinated breba crop but need pollination for the later main crop. Examples are Lampeira, King, and San Pedro.