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The Common Fig
Common Fig foliage and fruit
Common Fig foliage and fruit
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Genus: Ficus
Subgenus: Ficus
Species: F. carica
Binomial name
Ficus carica
L.

The Common fig (Ficus carica) is a large, deciduous, shrub or small tree native to southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region (Greece east to Afghanistan).

It grows to a height of 3-10m tall, with smooth grey bark.

The leaves are 12–25 cm long and 10–18 cm across, and deeply lobed with three or five lobes.

The fruit is 3–5 cm long, with a green skin sometimes ripening towards purple. The sap of the tree's green parts is an irritant to human skin.

Contents

Cultivation and uses

Fresh figs cut open showing the flesh and seeds inside
Fig of Bengal locally called Dumur

The Common Fig is widely grown for its edible fruit throughout its natural range in Iran and also in the rest of the Mediterranean region and other areas of the world with a similar climate, including California, Oregon, Texas and Washington in the United States, Nuevo León and Coahuila in Northeastern Mexico as well as Australia, Chile and South Africa. Fig can also be found in continental climate with hot summer, as north as Hungary, and can be picked twice or three times a year.Thousands of cultivars, most unnamed, have been developed or come into existence as human migration brought the fig to many places outside its natural range. It has been an important food crop for thousands of years, and was also thought to be highly beneficial in the diet.

The edible fig is one of the first plants that were cultivated by humans. Nine subfossil figs of a parthenocarpic type dating to about 9400–9200 BC were found in the early Neolithic village Gilgal I (in the Jordan Valley, 13 km north of Jericho). The find predates the domestication of wheat, barley and legumes, and may thus be the first known instance of agriculture. It is proposed that they may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated (wheat and rye).1

Figs were also a common food source for the Romans. Cato the Elder, in his De Agri Cultura, lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian (De agri cultura, ch. 8). The fruits were used, among other things, to fatten geese for the production of a precursor of foie gras.

Figs can be eaten fresh or dried, and used in jam-making. Most commercial production is in dried or otherwise processed forms, since the ripe fruit does not transport well, and once picked does not keep well. In Bengal, the fruit is called Dumur. It is cooked as a vegetable and is believed to be good for heart ailments. It is called Anjeer (अंजीर) in Hindi and used in sweets apart from other usage in India.

Production statistics

Fig output in 2005
Fig, dried, uncooked
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 250 kcal   1040 kJ
Carbohydrates     63.87 g
- Sugars  47.92 g
- Dietary fiber  9.8 g  
Fat 0.93 g
Protein 3.30 g
Thiamin (Vit. B1)  0.085 mg   7%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  0.082 mg   5%
Niacin (Vit. B3)  0.619 mg   4%
Pantothenic acid (B5)  0.434 mg  9%
Vitamin B6  0.106 mg 8%
Folate (Vit. B9)  9 μg  2%
Vitamin C  1.2 mg 2%
Calcium  162 mg 16%
Iron  2.03 mg 16%
Magnesium  68 mg 18% 
Phosphorus  67 mg 10%
Potassium  680 mg   14%
Zinc  0.55 mg 6%
Percentages are relative to US
recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient database

FAO reports the 2005 fig-production was 1,057,000 tonnes; Turkey was the top fig-producer (285,000 tonnes), followed by Egypt (170,000 tonnes) and other Mediterranean countries.

Aydın, İzmir and Muğla region, which used to be called antique Caria region, are the top fig-producers in Turkey.

Cultivars

  • Alma
  • Brown Turkey
  • Celeste
  • Italian black
  • Italian white
  • Kadota: used in Fig Newtons, dries well
  • Lemon Fig: also known as Blanch, or Marseilles
  • Mission: black, sweet, commonly dried.
Dried figs

Figs and health

Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fiber. According to USDA data for the Mission variety, dried figs are richest in fiber, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamin K, relative to human needs. They have smaller amounts of many other nutrients. Figs have a laxative effect and contain many antioxidants. They are good source of flavonoids and polyphenols2. In one study, a 40-gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced a significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity3.

Pollination, propagation, and fruit

Although commonly referred to as a fruit, the fig fruit is actually the flower of the tree, known as an inflorescence (an arrangement of multiple flowers), a false fruit or multiple fruit, in which the flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass. The genus Dorstenia, also in the figs family (Moraceae), exhibits similar tiny flowers arranged on a receptacle but in this case the receptacle is a more or less flat, open surface. The flower is invisible, as it blooms inside the fruit. The small orifice visible on the middle fruit is a narrow passage, which allows a very specialised wasp, the fig wasp, to enter the fruit and pollinate the flower, whereafter the fruit grows seeds. See Ficus: Fig pollination and fig fruit.

Figs are easy to propagate through several methods. For propagation in the mid-summer months, air layer new growth in August (mid-summer) or insert a hardened off new 6-10" tip in moist perlite or a sandy soil mix, keeping the new cuttings in a shaded area until new growth appears, then gradually moving into full sun. An alternative propagation method is bending over a taller branch, scratching the bark to reveal the green layer, then pinning the scratched area tightly to the ground. Within a few weeks, new roots will develop and then the rooted piece can be clipped from the mother plant and transplanted where desired.

For spring propagation, before the tree starts new growth, cut 6-10" tips that have healthy buds at their ends and set into a moist perlite and/or sandy soil mix, and move to a shaded area. Once the plant starts to leaf out bury the whole plant up to the bottom leaf to give the plant a good start.

Most fig varieties grown in the U.S.A. are of the variety that do not require the fig wasp, that is, they are self fertilizing and the fruit grows seeds. However, to propagate by using those seeds is not the preferred method since the above methods of propagation are quicker and more predictable.

Cultural aspects

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Adam and Eve clad themselves with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7) after eating the "forbidden fruit" from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Likewise, fig leaves, or depictions of fig leaves, have long been used to cover the genitals of nude figures in painting and sculpture. Often these fig leaves were added by art collectors or exhibitors long after the original work was completed. The use of the fig leaf as a protector of modesty or shield of some kind has entered the language.

The biblical quote "each man under his own vine and fig tree" (1 Kings 4:25) has been used to denote peace and prosperity. It was commonly quoted to refer to the life that would be led by settlers in the American West, and was used by Theodor Herzl in his depiction of the future Jewish Homelandcitation needed.

There is a chapter in the Quran named after the fig tree, and the fruit is also mentioned in Qur'an in many places. The Prophet Muhammad mentioned figs and then stated, "If I had to mention a fruit that descended from paradise I would say this is it because the paradisiacal fruits do not have pits...eat from these fruits for they prevent hemorrhoids, prevent piles and help gout." (Bukhari) [1]

Since the flower is invisible, there is a Bengali proverb: tumi jeno dumurer phool hoe gele, you have become (invisible like) the dumur flower. The derisive English idiom I don't care a fig probably originates from the abundance of this fruit.

In Greek mythology the god Apollo sends a crow to collect water from a stream for him. The crow sees a fig tree and waits for the figs to ripen, tempted by the fruit. He knows that he is late and that his tardiness will be punished so he gets a snake from the stream and collects the water. He presents Apollo with the water and uses the snake as an excuse. Apollo sees through the crow's lie and throws the crow, goblet, and snake into the sky where they form the constellations Hydra, Crater and Corvus.

The word "sycophant" actually means "showing the figs" (derived by the Greek words σῦκον, sýkon, "fig", and φαίνω, phaínō, "to show") and was used in ancient Athens for those who informed against another for exporting figs (which was forbidden by law) or for stealing the fruit of the sacred fig-trees, whether in time of famine or on any other occasion (Plutarch, Life of Solon, 24, 2.). Figs from Attica were especially prized and were a valuable export commodity. As a result, Athens had decreed that the very profitable fig business was to be a state monopoly and all fig growers were obliged to sell their entire produce to the state. Falsely accusing someone of clandestine transactions with figs was therefore a convenient way to slander them before the courts.

The figrid tree is sacred to Dionysus Sukites (Συκίτης).

Picture gallery

Leaves and green fruit on common fig tree

Common Fig leaves and fruit

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden - fresco depicting a distressed Adam and Eve, with and without fig leaves, by Tommaso Masaccio, 1426-27

An open fig

Footnotes

  1. ^ Kislev et al. (2006a, b), Lev-Yadun et al. (2006)
  2. ^ Vinson (1999)
  3. ^ Vinson et al. (2005)

References

External links
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