12 ms·
The fig is an ecological marvel
- dmitryminkovsky 5y agoReminded me of this nice piece in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/love-the-fig https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/love-the...
- ipsum2 5y agoThat article says: > *This article has been revised to clarify the fact that not all fig plants require pollination to produce edible fruit. Which contradicts the Nautilus article: > Anyone who eats figs is consuming wasp biomass. Which to believe?
- strait 5y agoanyone, everyone == usually false there are exceptions == usually true
- tpm 5y agoMany people here (in Slovakia) have self-pollinating figs in gardens. Figs that require pollination are only some cultivars used in agriculture as far as I know.
- dmix 5y ago> Most commercial figs, like the ones you buy at the store, are grown without wasps. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/figs-without-wasps https://askabiologist.asu.edu/figs-without-wasps
- froh 5y agoto save click: > Some types of fig that are grown for human consumption have figs that ripen without pollination. It is also possible to trick plants into ripening figs without wasps by spraying them with plant hormones
- andrewmcwatters 5y ago…”Interesting” writing, but the only takeaway people will have is that figs contain wasps, which isn’t true in real life consumption, and this type of writing just produces urban myths.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago> which isn’t true in real life consumption Why not?
- gfaure 5y agoSteve Mould did an explainer on the pollination cycle of figs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6jJzOc9gaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6jJzOc9gaE Despite all this, I have no plans to alter my fig consumption at this time.
- barbegal 5y agoSo the most popular figs to eat are: Kadota: doesn't need pollinating Brown Turkey: doesn't need pollinating Black Mission: doesn't need pollinating Adriatic: doesn't need pollinating Calimyrna: must be pollinated by a wasp So in conclusion it is unlikely that if you pick a random fig from the supermarket that it was pollinated by a wasp.
- renewiltord 5y agoThe conclusion may well be true but as someone who doesn’t regularly eat figs, is it the case that all these varieties are readily available? After all, there are more than 15 varieties of banana but the likelihood of my picking a Cavendish (conditioned on having picked a banana) at my local supermarket is actually a resounding 100%. EDIT: To responder, the point is that if you have 5 options, it doesn't mean you have 1/5 the chance of each option. Hence the example with the banana.
- anonleb4 5y agoThat question doesn't mean anything. It depends on where you live. The most common types of figs in France are not the same as the most common figs available in Turkey for example.
- planetis 5y agoWell the most widespread around the world is the Smyrna variety. So...
- jaggederest 5y agoA significant chunk of packaged figs that I've seen are black mission figs because they dry well, and are non-pollinated. A lot of the others are smyrna or calimyrna which require pollination.
- LightRailTycoon 5y agoSo, I'm a produce buyer for a grocery store in the Northeastern USA. The vast majority of fresh figs in the USA supply chain are Black Mission. They're also the best, at least by the time they get here. Brown Turkey are also available, but rarely carried at grocery stores. Kadotas and Adriatics are also available, but much less common.
- planetis 5y agoFig producer here, I don't get the backslash about fig ...flower, there is no tiny wasp in there, its entirely broken down by the tree's enzymes. In ancient Greece it was the most popular and important fruit, a pillar of the economy. ...also the "milky latex" (that the tree bleeds) burns your skin and leaves scars. If in contact with my skin, I would wash it immediately and avoid any kind of experiments.
- planetis 5y agoThe Kimi PDO figs variety are the biggest, most sweet, fleshy figs in the world. Coupled with the traditional (goes back to antiquity) manual way of preparation and drying they are the king of sun dried figs.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> In ancient Greece it was the most popular and important fruit I would have guessed olives.
- tokai 5y agoOlives were definitely the most important fruit by far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(tree)
- tsimionescu 5y agoYou're probably using the botanical term 'fruit', while the GP was using the culinary term 'fruit'. Olives are not fruit in the culinary sense (no one puts olives in a fruit salad).
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- state_less 5y agoSeems like preserving our island among the stars would be a better long term payout for everyone.
- planetis 5y agoDon't get me started on the smear campaign started years ago by probably competitors, all figs are 100% vegan foods, there is no scientific proof that there is "wasp biomass" in there. We are not talking about a regular wasp, but an ant sized one, small enough that can fit in from the flowers lentil sized opening. Their wings are dropped upon entering. They get trapped and consumed by the tree.
- agucova 5y agoI'm confused, so you admitted that a wasp enters but there's still no biomass? Does the wasp just go out again?
- spoonjim 5y agoThe wasp is completely digested. Does my car’s gas tank contain dinosaur biomass? Not really, it’s been chemically transformed.
- agucova 5y agoTo be fair, "dinosaur biomass" would be innacurate, but "biomass-derived fuel" is a perfectly fine description that you'll find in a lot of places.
- micheljansen 5y agoBy that logic what would you call manure? Vegans are going to have a very hard time this way!
- dTal 5y agoA) manure is plant biomass, not animal B) anyway, you don't eat manure C) anyway, vegans are fine with figs so the whole thing is a strawman
- atombender 5y ago
- Tylerian 5y agoThis reminded me of The Queen of Trees[1] by Deeble & Stone, a mind blowing documentary about this wonderful tree. Indeed one of the most fascinating documentaries I ever watched. [1](https://youtu.be/xy86ak2fQJM https://youtu.be/xy86ak2fQJM)
- yesenadam 5y agoThank you! just watched it with the SO, we loved it. It's indeed pretty amazing.
- da39a3ee 5y agoDawkins has an excellent chapter/essay on the fig/wasp relationship. At the end of Climbing Mount Improbable I believe.
- pedrow 5y agoWhat does the word "emergent" mean in this context, e.g. "one emergent Samoan fig literally saved the trees"?
- colinb 5y agoHmm. Second meaning in my dictionary is "2 Ecology of or denoting a plant which is taller than the surrounding vegetation, especially a tall tree in a forest. • of or denoting a water plant with leaves and flowers that appear above the water surface." Is this tree taller than others nearby?
- austincheney 5y agoI have a fig tree in my yard. It has never produced much fruit. The fruit it does product are brown and small about the size of a cherry tomato. Everything above ground completely died this year as a result of winter-pocalypse, but new growth is now a ball of green about 8 x 10 x 7 feet.
- ardit33 5y agolooks like you have a wild fig... figs usually are not planted by the seeds, but by planting branches of already known 'domesticated' figs, in the ground, where the new branch takes root and turns into a tree itself... aka cloning.
- seiferteric 5y agoI have a volunteer fig tree that is about 7 years old now. I am finally getting good figs off of it this year. With water and fertilizer it seems to have responded very well, with nice large figs. It is a mission fig variety.
- austincheney 5y agoWhat do you use for fertilizer? My tree seems to respond well to bonemeal and this year I have fed it all my discarded banana peels. For my tree these contribute to excellent growth but I still get very few figs.
- seiferteric 5y agoI just use an organic fruit tree fertilizer. I also pruned it to be a "tree" since it is in a tight space, but it really wants to be a bush and is constantly sending up shoots from the roots.
- matco11 5y agoA few years ago, I got a little put off by the wasps-fig thing, then, after some research, I found that wasps have nothing to do with the species of figs that are consumed by humans
- DSingularity 5y agoGoodness what’s disturbing thing about the wasps. I needed to read something like this if I was ever to earth another fig. Thank you!
- cataphract 5y agoSome species of figs consumed by humans require caprification (either only for the Fall figs — San Pedro group —, or for both the Fall and breba crop — Smyrna group) which involves getting male figs from specific varities (caprifigs) on the trees you want to pollinate. These figs are where the wasps lay their eggs, but they're not really edible. Now, when the wasps emerge from the caprifigs with pollen, they go into the the edible figs and pollinate them, but they cannot lay eggs there due to their morphology. AFAIK they die inside. That said, most varities, at least here in Portugal, don't require caprification. This list of varieties from Algarve shows few requiring caprification: https://www.drapalgarve.gov.pt/images/destaques/Livro_WEB_Figueiras_1.pdf https://www.drapalgarve.gov.pt/images/destaques/Livro_WEB_Fi...
- BLanen 5y ago> An Asian logging company offered to harvest the island’s timber in exchange for enough funds to build a new school. What a strange sentence. Reverse the two clauses and it reads much more naturally. "funds for the school in exchange for logging rights"
- TN1ck 5y agoI once built a scrolly-telling tool for designers and how figs are pollinated by these wasps is one of the stories [0] - if anybody would like to see a more graphical explanation. [0]: https://app.visualpedia.igg.cloud/stories/wasp-eating-fig https://app.visualpedia.igg.cloud/stories/wasp-eating-fig
- subpixel 5y agoSo that's what the slightly crunchy bits are in a Fig Newton.
- dukeofdoom 5y agoSurprisingly hardy. Can even grow in Chicago with minimal winter protection. Makes fruit too, though resembles a shrub.
- zabzonk 5y ago> minimal winter protection People in North London, where there is a big Greek/Turkish population, wrap the individual figs on the tree in small plastic bags to protect them from the weather as they grow.