More on figs and strange 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
>
For anyone who gives a fig:
>The fruit of the fig as we know it, is actually a receptacle, inside of
>which are numerous true fruits we commonly think of as seeds. This
>pecular arrangement presents difficult pollenating problems for some
>varieties, since the receptacles have a large number of minute flowers
>inside. In some varieties, these must be pollinated or the receptacle
>will not remain attached to the plant until maturity. In other variteies,
>the fruit is enlarged if the flowers are not pollinated. It has been
>determinated that a small Asiatic wasp aids materially in the pollinating
>process. Another kind of fig called a Caprifig bears a large number of
>pollen-bearing flowers. This insect lays eggs inside the receptacle of
>the Caprifig by entering a small hole at the tip of the receptacle. These
>eggs hatch and mature insects emerge at a time when all the Caprifig
>flowers are covered with pollen. Hence, they emerge from the Caprifig
>covered with pollen and fly to the receptacles of the regular Fig
>varieties, enter them through the tiny hole at the end and, in the course
>of their movements , pollenate the flowers inside the receptacle. This
>process is called caprification, or fruit prodicing. The Caprifig trees
>are not grown at the same place as the regular fig trees, but at some
>place distant. At the time the young insects are just about to emerge
>from the caprifigs, the "fruits" are picked and put in small baskets, then
>transported and hung up in the regular fig producing trees. The emerging
>wasps do the rest. Most caprifigs are not edible and are grown solely to
>aid in this pollinizing process. Flowers of edible figs product no
>pollen, the reason why caprification becomes so important in commercial
>fig production.
>
>Adapted from Wyman Gardening Encyclopedia, 2nd edition.
Don Martinson
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
d*@post.its.mcw.edu
"Existing order thrives upon ignorance and lies.
Objective truth and individual reason are feared above all."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
