FIGOS: NOT FRUIT, DID YOU KNOW?
A fig is not just any fruit.
In fact, it’s not even a fruit.
Strictly figs are inverted flowers.
Figures don’t bloom the same way other fruit trees do like almond trees or cherry trees.
The figs have a very curious story.
First of all, technically, they are not a fruit, but a fruitlessness (a bundle).
And second that they need a wasp sacrificed to reproduce, insect that dies inside the fig.
In simple words figs are a kind of inverted flowers that bloom inside that big dark cocoon with reddish tones we know as fig.
Each flower produces a single nut fruit and a single seed called ′′ aquenium ".
The fig is composed of several aquenies, which gives it this crispy texture so characteristic.
Therefore, when we eat a fig, we are eating hundreds of fruit.
But the most amazing the special pollination process that fig flowers need to reproduce.
They can’t depend on the wind or bees causing pollen like other fruits so they need a species known as fig wasps.
These insects transport your genetic material and allow you to reproduce.
For their part, wasps could not live without figs, as they deposit their larvae inside the fruit. This relationship is known as symbiosis or mutualism.
Currently, the vast majority of the producers of this fruit need no more than work of the wasps. Most human consumption fig varieties are parthenogenetic.
This means they always bear fruit in the absence of pollinator.
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So, some figs aren’t vegetarian? Hmmmm
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Yes one of the strangest plants ever. The wasp is only in a small part of California on this side of the pond. I only grow common figs that do not need the wasp to ripen.
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