Re: Hidden Sex!!!
The fig is a weird one, no doubt about it. What we consider the fruit is
really the fleshy receptacle. The flowers are inside of this
"fruit"--lots of tiny male and female flowers which bloom and mature in
the dark. The pollination is accoplished by a particular wasp which is
specific to the fig variety, and which can crawl up a tiny terminal pore
in the receptacle. It is thus the seeds of the fig (achenes) which are
acually the fruits! I've read that the insect pollinator must be bred
just for this purpose and must be first supplied with pollen from
another kind of fig grown only to provide pollen. Nature is amazing. How
it was ever figured out how to grow figs commercially, I'll never know.
--
Barb Perna
Southcental WI, Zone 4
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