The fruit of the fig is green, purple or bluish and of variable size. It requires a temperate climate and does not tolerate low temperatures, although it can withstand long periods of drought.
Some cultivated fig trees produce two crops of figs, one of figs in spring, larger in size, and another of figs in autumn.
The fruits can be eaten raw or dried. In the Alpujarra area "fig bread" is made.
A fig contains a lot of calories and is easily digested.
The figs soothe the nervous strength, the must, cooked in arrope, promotes digestion, evacuates the stomach and is recommended for urinary bladder disorders.
The first fruit of the fig tree produced in late spring is called breva. Its thin skin and flavor is similar to that of figs, although they are not as sweet as figs
Contrary to popular belief, the fig is not a fruit.
The fig is not a fruit
It is a fleshy receptacle called 'syconium' pear-shaped that supports the male and female flowers that give rise to small fruits called 'achenes' commonly called seeds. It is thus an infructescence
The fleshy and sweet part of the fig or syconium corresponds to the flowers that after fertilization swell and become fleshy
There are bíferas or re-flowering fig trees that give two harvests a year
A first one, at the beginning of the summer (the figs); and another one, around October, the real figs.
Other fig trees bear only figs and are not re-flowering
There are also monoecious fig trees that produce male and female flowers on the same tree and therefore do not usually need fertilizing devices
But there are other fig trees, dioecious, in which the female flowers are on one tree and the male flowers (cabrahígos) on others.
Fecundation (which may not be necessary) is achieved by bringing cabrahígos branches closer to branches with female flowers.
A small insect, called a "blastóphage", passes from the male flowers and fertilizes, with the pollen attached to its body, the female flowers.
In any case, there are female flowers that develop parthenocarpically
All these complex mechanisms made it possible in the Bible to speak of the "cursed fig tree", which refused to bear fruit
There are, therefore, fig trees that do not bear figs unless the female flowers have been fertilized by insects (Blastofaga psenes) with pollen from wild fig trees; if there are no goats nearby, bunches of male figs from other fig trees are hung on their branches
Other fig trees, including those currently in cultivation, do not need such a contribution
It can be said that the trees with female flowers produce edible fruits and those that produce male and female ones in which the reproduction of the fig cirife (Blastofaga psenes), which pollinates the others, takes place
Fig trees with three generations of inflorescences occur on the same tree
The summer ones produce the figs, the spring ones are used for pollination, and the winter ones are used for fig reproduction.
The summer ones produce the figs
It has two fructifications: the first one is the heathers, which are born in winter, in the axils of the leaves
Cultivation of figs or heathers
It withstands long periods of drought
Sensitive to frost
It prefers dry and poor soils and has a high fruit production.
It prefers dry and poor soils and has a high fruit production
