Fruit and Nut Trees

by steve stamos

The Fig tree is a genus of about 800 species of trees and shrubs of the family Moraceae native to the tropics with a few species extending into the warm temperate zone. The most well known species in the genus is the common fig or F. carica. F.Carica is a plant native to the Mediterranean region it produces commercial edible fruits or more correctly flowers called figs. There are many other species that produce edible fruit though not widely consumed. Most species are evergreen but some grown in temperate and long dry season areas are deciduous.

The fruit (fig) is bulbous shaped with a small opening at the distal end and derives from a specialized structure called a syconium; a special arrangement of flowers found inside a fig. The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the distal opening or ostiole. There is only one species of wasp for each species of fig, and therefore plantings of fig species outside of their native range results in sterile individuals.

In the wild there are two types of each species of fig tree: the hermaphrodite fig, that produces pollen but seeds to generate a new tree; and the female, that produces no pollen but produces three crops of figs throughout the year, one of which if pollinated, produces a seeds can produce a new tree. Most figs are hermaphrodite.

Fig trees grows from 3 to 9 meters tall with a shallow spreading root system that sometimes covers15 m) of ground, but in good permeable soil some of the roots may descend to 6 m. Figs can be propagated from seeds but also easily propagated from cuttings. There are many varieties in each class of cultivated figs. Fresh figs are very perishable. The fig tree is susceptible to attack by nematodes most commonly Meloidogyne spp.)

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