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Ficus is a genus of about 800 species of woody trees, shrubs and vines in the family Moraceae, native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the warm temperate zone. The genus includes one species, the Common Fig F. carica, that produces a commercial fruit called a fig; the fruit of many other species are edible though not widely consumed. Other examples of figs include the banyans and the Sacred Fig (Peepul or Bo) tree. Most species are evergreen, while those from temperate areas, and areas with a long dry season, are deciduous. A fig fruit is derived from a specially adapted flower. The fruit (an accessory fruit called a syconium) has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ostiole) in the end and a hollow area inside lined with small red edible seeds. The fruit/flower is pollinated by small wasps that crawl through the opening to fertilise the fruit. Most figs come in two sexes: hermaphrodite (called caprifigs from goats - Caprinae subfamily; as in fit for eating by goats; sometimes called "inedible") and female (the male flower parts fail to develop; produces the "edible" fig). Fig wasps grow in caprifigs but not in the other because the female trees' female flower part is too long for the wasp to successfully lay her eggs in them. None-the-less, the wasp pollinates the flower with pollen from the fig it grew up in, so figs with developed seeds also contain dead fig wasps almost too tiny to see. When a caprifig ripens, another caprifig must be ready to be pollinated. Tropical figs bear continuously, enabling fruit-eating animals to survive the time between mast years. In temperate climes, wasps hibernate in figs, and there are distinct crops. Caprifigs have three crops per year; edible figs have two. The first of the two is small and is called breba; the breba figs are olynths. Some selections of edible figs do not require pollination at all, and will produce a crop of figs (albeit without fertile seeds) in the absence of caprifigs or fig wasps. There is typically only one species of wasp capable of fertilizing the flowers of each species of fig, and therefore plantings of fig species outside of their native range results in effectively sterile individuals. For example, in Hawaii, some 60 species of figs have been introduced, but only four of the wasps that fertilize them have been introduced, so only four species of figs produce viable seeds there. There is circumstantial evidence that figs were among the first cultivated crop, based on preserved specimens in Jericho. The figs were grown some 11,400 years ago, and because they were of a mutation which could not reproduce normally, it is proposed that they may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops domesticated (wheat and rye). Figs are also easily propagated from cuttings. An extraordinarily large self-rooted Wild Willowleaf Fig in South Africa is protected by the Wonderboom Nature Reserve.
Symbolism It is often said that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a fig tree from the book of Genesis for its large leaves and also the nature of the fig itself. In the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament rotten figs are used as a symbol for destruction, and in the New Testament Jesus rebukes an unfruitful fig tree. In several places in the Old Testament, the phrase, "under his vine and under his fig tree" is used to denote a place of safety and peace (1 Kings 4:25, 2 Kings 18:31, Micah 4:4, Joel 2:22, Zechariah 3:10, and 1 Maccabees 14:11). Because of the peculiar form of the flower of figs, ancient Indians regarded the fig as a flowerless tree. ( The tiny flowers of the fig are out of sight, clustered inside the green "fruits", technically a syconium.) Buddhist and Hindu texts sometimes refer to "seeking flowers in a fig tree" to indicate something that is pointless or impossible, or to indicate the total absence of some quality (compare the Australian English language expression 'why search for the bunyip?'). References to the flowers of a fig may also be used to indicate great rarity- roughly comparable to the English expression 'rare as hen's teeth'. Pāli scholar K.R. Norman collected references to fig flowers in the Pāli canon in his translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, as well as writing an article entitled Rare as Fig Flowers that was published with his collected papers by the Pāli Text Society. Krishna's buttercup (Ficus krishnae) is a species of fig from India with a peculiar leaf structure and is associated with the Hindu deity Krishna. Historical significance In June 2006, it was reported that figs dating back 11,400 years were discovered at Gilgal I, a village in the Lower Jordan Valley, just 8 miles north of ancient Jericho. This discovery makes figs the oldest domesticated crop. Figs and health Figs are good source of flavonoids and polyphenols. Figs and other dried fruit were measured for their antioxidant content. 40 grams of dried figs(two medium size figs) produced significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity . Figs also have higher quantities of fiber than any other dried or fresh fruit. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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