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What a fig is.
- gus_massa 16y agoThis is only a copy of http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/09/edible_symbiosis.php http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/09/edible_symbiosis.... It is better to link to the original article. It has some photos and videos of the figs.
- jacobolus 16y agoBoth the Wikipedia article [1] and the other scienceblogs post [2] linked from that post are pretty interesting, too. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Fig#Pollination.2C_fruit.2C_and_propagation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Fig#Pollination.2C_fruit... [2]: http://scienceblogs.com/observations/2010/01/even-mutualists-have-to-constantly-fight-to-stay-friends.php http://scienceblogs.com/observations/2010/01/even-mutualists...
- losethos 16y agoFigs are Jews. Jeremiah Chapter 24 1 1 The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.--This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and the skilled workers, and brought them to Babylon.-- 2 One basket contained excellent figs, the early-ripening kind. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. 3 Then the LORD said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten." 4 Thereupon this word of the LORD came to me: 5 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out. 7 I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 8 And like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten--yes, thus says the LORD--even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them. 10 I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers. Jesus liked figs. 12 2 The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. 13 Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. 14 And he said to it in reply, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!" And his disciples heard it. 15 3 They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 16 He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. 17 Then he taught them saying, "Is it not written: 'My house shall be called a house of prayerfor all peoples'? But you have made it a den of thieves." 18 The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 When evening came, they went out of the city. 20 Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." 22 Jesus said to them in reply, "Have faith in God. 23 Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. 25 You get what you pray for.
- sliverstorm 16y agoHence why I stopped eating figs.
- d_c 16y agoSeriously? :) My, they sure are delicious fruits.
- sliverstorm 16y agoI never liked them much anyway, and I didn't particularly relish the idea of eating dead wasps. (bugs? well, ok. Wasps? No thanks) Although now that I read the wasps are digested by the fig, they seem more palatable again.
- Emore 16y agoThis is why I'm buying figs asap!
- geuis 16y agoDo you eat hot dogs? I don't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhwXPsTaRgc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhwXPsTaRgc
- sliverstorm 16y agoNope. I'll eat them on the very rare occasion when I'm really hungry and there's nothing else available, but nope.
- nwatson 16y agoskip the video and forget ramen profitability. the real standard is the Costco hot dog. $1.50 for an excellent treat with unlimited soda refills.
- eru 16y agoI don't like hot dogs and sausages for the taste. But the video makes the production look more palatable than what I had imagined.
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- jcromartie 16y agoJust a note: there is usually only one wasp in the edible fig, and it has been broken down by the plant.
- jaekwon 16y agothank you, didn't want to know that.
- jherdman 16y agoWhy not? Did that not just humble you a bit with the sheer grace and awe yielded by hundreds of years of evolution? I don't know about you, but my world just got slightly more awesome knowing about this.
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago>Did that not just humble you a bit with the sheer grace and awe yielded by hundreds of years of evolution? It is awe inspiring design isn't it.
- ugh 16y agoIt’s awfully convoluted design. Like a Rube Goldberg machine.
- jaekwon 16y agohundreds?? no i think it took way longer than that. maybe even tens!
- eru 16y agoHow about millions of years?
- superkarn 16y agoAt first glace it seemed like this species of wasp was inbreeding. But after reading a Wiki article [1], it seems like different female wasps can lay eggs in a single fig. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_wasp#Life_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_wasp#Life_cycle
- Pinckney 16y agoThey do inbreed very heavily--not exclusively, but more than any other animal of which I'm aware. The larva will mate with siblings, if that's who they happen to find.
- latch 16y agoRipe figs are delicious, and knowing that they've also, potentially killed a wasp - man's greatest enemy - only makes their nectar sweeter to my tongue.
- pigbucket 16y agoThe knowledge of enclosed vespine corpses just adds one more item to my growing list of things I hate about fig trees, of which I have two. Two fig trees are at least one and probably two fig trees too many. Too much pruning is required because spring growth is extensive. Too much fall raking is required because there's a ton of foliage too. But the real pain in the ass is harvesting. Figs really have to ripen on the tree, but as soon as they're ripe they're liable to fall. Without daily vigilance, a big crop will result in lots of smashed, rotting fruit on the ground, which sticks with insane determination to the soles of unwary shoes. Naturally in the season of maturation the fig tree is also the haunt of 17.6 billion insects of every variety, so while it provides ample shade from the sun, it's better to just suck it up and burn. Also less than the most satisfying experience of one's life is picking figs from the tree with a view to either engaging in the messy and overrated process of eating them, the laborious and not especially rewarding process of drying them, or merely in the pathetically futile effort to protect the ground beneath. Mucking about in the middle of that foliage is massively irritating to any exposed skin because of the sticky residue that seems to find its disgusting way onto every leaf and branch. The severity of this irritation is such that extraordinary caution is recommended before following the presumably divinely-inspired path towards modesty followed by Adam and Eve.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- fractallyte 16y agoOn our fig tree, the figs ripen without falling off. But, it's a race to get to them before the local fauna: they seem to be a real delicacy for birds and wasps. Later in the season, half-eaten figs (ripe, brown and wrinkled) fill the topmost branches, attended by crowds of wasps. When I pick them, I go in a T-shirt and shorts. Yes, the leaves are sticky - but not irritating in the slightest. It's usually a warm humid day anyway, so a cold shower is very refreshing. And as for the figs: infinitely more delicious than anything from grocery stores. Messy to eat? Less messy than an apple. I think we must be referring to different types of trees...
- code_duck 16y agoSo, is Monsanto plotting to kill off the fig wasps and replace them with something they can profit from yet?
- dunhamda 16y agoFascinating. Here is a video showing the wasps collecting the pollen inside a male fig flower (as described in the first paragraph): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCYoEdavDk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCYoEdavDk
- jmspring 16y agoI have to say from experience... If you move into a house (purchase/rent/otherwise) with a fig tree and plan to relandscape. Be very careful. Fig tree roots run very shallow, and even older trees are susceptible to damage to the roots. I found out the hard way - rototilling an overgrown back yard due to too much grass, weeds, bulbs, etc. The 'till chomped through two or three large surface roots (< 8" deep which were more than 4 feet from the tree). The result - one dead 20+ y/o fig tree. Be careful when gardening/redoing a yard.
- TrevorBramble 16y agoSounds like you and pigbucket up there should have a chat. (Re: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1685161 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1685161 if you hadn't seen.)
- jmspring 16y agoI missed that, that is pretty awesome. I'm not a fan of figs, but the significant other and friends are. For me, losing an old tree due to not knowing it's proper care was the bit of a downer. I don't quite feel pigbucket's hate. :)
- frobozz 16y agoFigs prefer a bit of constraint in their roots, so they should be planted out in a buried pot.
- abecedarius 16y agoThe concluding chapter of Dawkins's _Climbing Mount Improbable_ is all about this, and it needed a whole chapter because it's mind-blowingly intricate. http://books.google.com/books?id=erRC0ELnZdsC&pg=PA300&dq=climbing+mount+improbable+a+garden+inclosed http://books.google.com/books?id=erRC0ELnZdsC&pg=PA300&#...
- kujawa 16y agoTake a fig. Okay, take about 8 of them. And take 8 strips of thick-cut, maple-smoked, peppered organic bacon, the best you can find. Wrap the fig in the bacon, secure with a toothpick, and place on a pan. Roast at 425F for about 25 minutes, checking after about 15 minutes. I assure you, you will not be disappointed.
- peterwwillis 16y agothis is why i love hacker news.
- alexqgb 16y agoDoes this fig hold a wasp? That's an enigma, wrapped in mystery, wrapped in bacon.
- dboyd 16y agoYou forgot to first make a small lengthwise cut in the fig, and fill it with blue cheese. Then wrap it with bacon, secure with a toothpick, and put it on the bbq.
- jbeda 16y agoDon't forget to also drizzle with honey and cracked black pepper.
- cvg 16y agoif only tiny pigs pollinated figs
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- bd 16y agoIf you are squeamish and like figs, this may comfort you. According to a comment in the original post, majority of commercial ones do not contain insects: "Only some kinds of figs (so called 'Smyrna' types) are pollenated by wasps. The vast majority of figs eaten come from varieties that produce fruit parthenocarpically. It is highly unlikely that the fig you ate at the supermarket was of a variety pollenated by wasps: most north american commercial figs are not." http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/09/edible_symbiosis.php#comment-2792506 http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/09/edible_symbiosis.... I chose to believe this explanation :)
- whyenot 16y agoThey are correct. Most of the figs, at least the fresh ones you would buy in the US, are parthenocarpic. Dried figs, or what might be in a fig newton, well... you're on your own on that one. There is an amazing amount of wildlife in a wasp pollinated fig. If you break one open, all sorts of interesting stuff crawls out, not just immature wasps, but also a lot of organisms that prey on the wasps.
- jeromec 16y agoDried figs, or what might be in a fig newton, well... you're on your own on that one. err, that's what I was most interested in... I've eaten an entire pack of fig newtons in one sitting.
- SoftwareMaven 16y ago"I've eaten an entire biological micro-ecosystem in one sitting." FTFY! Glad I don't like fig newtons. :)
- jeromec 16y agoCookies are a weakness of mine. It will be interesting to see if this puts me off of fig newtons... probably not. :)
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- bugsy 16y agoI'll just be putting these figs back on the shelf now.
- hernan7 16y agoNature at the macroscopic scale may be red in tooth and claw, but at smaller scales it gets positively Lovecraftian. (See also: the cockroach brain parasite http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasites.php http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasi... )
- ssamuli 16y agoI knew there had to be an explanation why I never liked figs.
- maxwell 16y agoWe got figs in at a restaurant I cook at this past week. We have fig ravioli on our seared scallop app (with frisse, radiccio, butternut puree, and reduced port), a fresh fig salad with fig vin (and mesclun, candied pinenuts, fried onions, and goat cheese mousse), and bruleed figs on our whipped chocolate dessert (with mint sorbet). Fun product, and, for us anyway, insect free.
- grantjgordon 16y agoWhat little love I had for figs has now been squelched. Thank you.
- Figs 16y agoWhy this sudden interest in me? :)
- hdeshev 16y agoWhat? Figs are not vegan? How about kosher?
- duairc 16y agoHaha, yeah, as a vegan, this is interesting! I don't think this makes figs unvegan though. At least, eating figs is just as vegan as building a house out of limestone.
- PedroCandeias 16y agoSo, in other words, a fig is a righteous bastard. And, in its choice of symbiont (a wasp, of all things), reveals a sense of irony that's as delicious as the fruit itself. It's the WINfruit!
- specialist 16y agoSorry, I don't read Andrew Sullivan. Supported invasion of Iraq, no mea culpa, wrong about pretty much everything else too.
- specialist 16y agoNice. Support for unrepentant warmongers remains strong in geekdom. Losers.
- arohner 16y agoBiology is strange. If I had read this in a sci-fi book, I would think the author went overboard.
- nollidge 16y agoReality is Unrealistic: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealis...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- lostbit 16y agoThe man came in the restaurant, pointed to a meal looking like meat and asked: "What it that?" The attentand replied: "that's our special: cow tongue!" And the man said: "Argh, I won't eat something that comes from the mouth of that animal... Just give me an egg, please."