The Biology of the Fig:
A Story to Boggle Your Amazement

The fig tree mentioned in the Bible—Ficus carica—is, in fact, only one of about 1800 species found all over the world, all of them of commercial or ecological importance. They also differ greatly in form; there are species that at creepers, shrubs, as well as huge trees. In the tropical forests their fruits provide a major source of food for the countless birds and herbivorous mammals. Many of them are also of important medicinal significance. Figs used in as ornamental houseplants and bonsai include Ficus benjamina, F. microcarpa, and the Indian Rubber tree (Ficus elastica). The huge Banyan trees strangling ancient ruins in places like India, Bali and Angkor Wat include F. benghalensis and F. microcarpa. In some parts of the world their prop roots are trained to form bridges and walls. One of the most amazing trees to behold is the specimen of F. benghalensis in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, a single tree whose thousands of prop roots have become tree-trunks in their own right, with its canopy covering an area equivalent to three football fields! The Bodhi tree under which Buddha was believed to have gained his enlightenment is F. religiosa. In S E Asian countries, many retaining walls and piers of overhead-bridges and flyovers are covered with the wall-hugging Ficus pimula. It remain fruitless and its leaves small until it has no more wall to climb. Then its stem thickens, the leaves grow large and fruits develop.

The Fruit

Whatever else may make the different species spectacular, one characteristic that distinguishes all figs is that one never sees any flowers on the tree. In fact, the Chinese word for the fig is mu fah guo', literally, "no flower fruit." So how does the fig tree produce fruits without flowers?

Biologically speaking, what we call the fig is not a fruit, but a syconium, a hollow fleshy housing. The flowers are found inside this syconium. At the bottom of the fruit is a small opening, called the ostiole. Every species of fig has at least one species of wasp dedicated to its pollination, and their life-cycles are timed to synchronize with the development of the fruit in manners that can only be described as amazing. Since different species of figs have different reproductive structures—some have only flowers of one sex while others have flowers of both sexes—the process of pollination and of the wasp's reproduction will be different. The discussion here will consider what happens in the Ficus carica, the species referred to in the Bible.

©Alberith, 2014