Ficus carica L.
Caprificus insectifera Gasparr., F. carica var. caprificus auct., F. carica var. sylvestris auct., F carica subsp. rupestris (Boiss.) Browicz, F. carica var. rupestris Boiss.
Eng.: Common fig. Spa.: Higuera, cabrahigo. Fre.: Figuier commun, caprifiguier. Ara. (female or cultivated fig tree): Kerma, kermaya, karam, teen, azar, lemdja, (male or wild fig tree): dokkar, (fruit): kermus, kartoss. Tam.: (male or wild fig tree): Tadukkart guirzer, (female or cultivated fig tree): tin, taguerurt, tanaglet, tar’lith, tamazate, tamehit, tazart, tahart, azart, ahaï, (fruit): bakhis, emohi.
Shrub or small deciduous tree, monoecious, up to 6(10) m in height. Very open in appearance, with broadly rounded crown. Trunk tortuous, with bark greyish-whitish, rough, slightly fissured or not at all fissured except at the base of very old copies. Branches extended or extended-erect, often falling down to the ground with their own weight, becoming creeping. Bark on old branches of the same colour as the trunk, although somewhat less rough; bark of the younger branches green, rough, with short hairs. Leaves deciduous, alternate, large, 10-35 × 8-28 cm, variably in shape but ± deeply palmate, with lobes entire or slightly divided, rarely leaves almost whole or completely undivided (deltoid); leaf basis generally slightly cordiform, lobes obtuse or rarely subacute, margin undulate with obtuse teeth; dark green on the upper side, rugose, rough, with short subconical hairs; glaucous on the underside, lighter and less rough, with similar hairs. Petiole long (2-10 cm), hairy or pulverulent. Branches and leaves produce a whitish latex, pungent, irritant. Male and female flowers minute (1.5-2.5 mm long), with a single whorl of 5 linear-lanceolate parts; enclosed inside a thick pear-shaped receptacle, with a pore at the apex, which developed from a short and thick peduncle that has enlarged and invaginated; male flowers, with 3 stamens (longer than the perianth), located above the female flowers; some female flowers with a well developed ovary and others atrophied, sterile. Wasps carry out pollination or “caprification” inside this receptacle. Fruits a set of minute achenes enclosed in a syconium or “fig”, developed from the accrescent and fleshy receptacle, pyriform, at first green and ± upright, turning from green to purplish-black when mature, and pendant until it drops. 2n = 26.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
September to October. Some fig trees produce another crop of larger fruits, the “brevas”, in late June or early July.
Habitat:
All types of terrain, often in rocky outcrops and even on artificial walls, from sea level to the mid mountain areas. In semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Southern Europe, central-western Asia and North Africa. Species originated in the Mediterranean region, but widely distributed through cultivation and naturalisation in other regions of the world.
Observations:
Both wild and cultivated populations present specimens that are functionally male, with male flowers and short-styled female flowers (“wild fig” or caprifigs), and specimens that are functionally female, with long-styled female flowers (“common or cultivated fig” or Smyrna figs). This is how they have evolved, in a symbiotic relationship with wasps of the genus Blastophaga, that lay their eggs in the female flowers and, in the process, pollinate the pistillate flowers. As the pollen comes from the figs of male trees, the caprifigs, this fertilization is known as “caprification”. In fact, the differences between caprifigs and common figs are those of a species that has co-evolved with the aforementioned wasps. Therefore, it is not a case of different species or subspecies, as it has been repeated for centuries both among local people and botanists, who have tried to see a different wild taxon in the caprifig.
Currently, in the intensive cultivation of figs, the trees are parthenocarpic, that is to say, that their flowers do not need the wasps to fecundate the female flowers to produce fruit.
Conservation status:
A common species and widely distributed species, it is not considered threatened. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Participating FFI/IUCN SSC Central Asian regional tree Red Listing workshop, 2007). In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Endangered”.