It’s a good thing I tasted fresh figs from my brother Beefeater’s tree before I found out how they are fertilized. It has something to do with a special kind of wasp climbing up inside of it.
I think.
Or maybe I dreamed this.
I’m a researcher, I could look it up. But today I research at the bidding of my clients and they are all clamboring for my attention. Clambor, clambor! (Hear them?)
Am I posting too many photographs of food? At least it’s not Italian beef sandwiches and French Fries!
3 comments:
There's something about this photo that makes me chuckle. I don't know why? I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of figs before.
Okay, you made me wonder about figs...I found the following at the PBS website where I also learned that figs are not fruit but are, instead, flowers. Who knew? Thought I would share my new found knowledge.
Deb
Like all other figs, strangler figs rely on a tiny wasp to survive. Worldwide, scientists have described more than 600 different kinds of fig wasps. Usually, each is linked to a specific species of fig, although some figs appear to have more than one pollinating wasp.
These tiny insects pollinate figs by crawling into a tiny hole in the base of a special flower, which ultimately becomes a round or oblong fruit. Female wasps often lay eggs inside the fruit, and the young fight their way out after hatching. They then fly off to find another flowering fig. Timing is everything, since the wasps don't live long and the trees often flower unpredictably throughout the year. Often, figs that have been transplanted to new areas become sterile because there are no wasps to pollinate them.
Researchers say there are probably several thousand kinds of fig wasps -- and perhaps hundreds of new kinds of figs -- still to be found and described. But they worry that habitat destruction, particularly in tropical areas, threatens to erase some of these species even before they are discovered.
Like all other figs, strangler figs rely on a tiny wasp to survive. Worldwide, scientists have described more than 600 different kinds of fig wasps. Usually, each is linked to a specific species of fig, although some figs appear to have more than one pollinating wasp.
These tiny insects pollinate figs by crawling into a tiny hole in the base of a special flower, which ultimately becomes a round or oblong fruit. Female wasps often lay eggs inside the fruit, and the young fight their way out after hatching. They then fly off to find another flowering fig. Timing is everything, since the wasps don't live long and the trees often flower unpredictably throughout the year. Often, figs that have been transplanted to new areas become sterile because there are no wasps to pollinate them.
I was just going to leave a note to tell you about the wasps and figs, but looks like someone else beat me to it. When you bite into a fig, see all those little individual "bits"? I think (but I admit I'm not 100% sure) each of those is a flower, so a fig is really hundreds of flowers bunched up in one.
When I bite into a fig, I always think, oh please, let the wasp be gone! What bad news it would be otherwise. My fig tree (2nd year in the ground) has some figs on it, but I doubt they'll ripen before it gets too cold.
Shu-Ju
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