Do you know Figs and Fig-wasps are made for each other, and each Fig species has its own specific Fig wasp?
Moreover, Figs contain ficain enzymes helping to absorb the nutrients and ripen the fruits.
So, this article will clear out all the misconceptions about Figs and provide more interesting facts about this amazing fruit.
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Are Figs Fruits Or Vegetables?
Basically, we call fruits to those that taste and can be eaten raw, whereas vegetables contain a mild taste and are cooked to eat.
So, culinary science considers Figs a fruit instead of a vegetable due to their honey-sweet taste.
However, the fact may amaze you that the rounded fruit a Fig tree produces is a cluster of many flowers.
Moreover, this infructescence is also multiple fruits containing a fleshy part inside lined with several unisexual flowers.
Besides, its relationship with Fig-wasps may confuse vegans. But this fruit is totally vegan-friendly.
Where Do Figs Come From?
Native to Asia. Figs are from the mulberry family. Thus, the seedlings of this plant are best suit in the Mediterranean climate.
Nowadays, more than 50 countries produce Figs, including Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Iran, Morocco, etc.
These expensive, sweet Fig fruits are made of clumps of male and female flowers, and the seeds inside them aren’t seeds but ovaries.
How Are Figs Pollinated?
You can find several varieties of Figs, and each species have its own wasp for pollination.
Moreover, no other insects can pollinate Figs rather than the specific wasps which enter the fruit from the opening.
After mating and laying eggs, the female wasp dies inside the fruit, and the male emerges searching for other females.
As soon as the eggs change into larvae, they emerge from the opening of the fruit, and the cycle continues.
Thus, these wasps cannot reproduce without Figs, and the pollination of Figs isn’t possible without wasps.
These days, you can find these amazing fruits widely in the market as Fig newtons containing Fig-paste coated with pastry dough.
From Editorial Team
There Is Fig Wasp Myth!
As wasp pollinates the Figs, there is a myth that the crunchy texture inside Figs is dead wasps.
Actually, those crunchy things are seeds or ovaries but not dead wasps. As soon as the female wasp dies, the enzyme inside Figs digests that dead body.
