Are you really eating a dead wasp when you eat a fig?

Did you know that the fig is not a fruit in the strict sense? Even more surprising: did you also know that eating a fig is like ingesting the remains of a wasp? Explanations.

What a pleasure to bite into a freshly picked fig! And what a pleasure also to prepare delicious recipes with figs… A rarer delight this summer 2022, due to the significant drought that is undermining current and future harvests. Although the fig tree is resistant to lack of waterthe current weather conditions are not favorable to it and many figs fall to the ground before they are ripe. Figs which are not really fruits, but rather rather unusual flowers…

Fig trees produce inverted flowers

In fact, fig trees do not produce fruit in the same way as pear trees, for example, because their flowering is done in reverse. The flowers of the fig tree grow inside a rigid pocket. A flowering that takes place in spring and summer, and is therefore somewhat invisible, since the flowers are hidden inside the figs in formation. Figs that reach maturity in summer or autumn, depending on the variety.

The small filaments that are inside the fig are therefore flowers, which once fertilized will create an edible fruit. Inside a fig there are several fruits! To do this, the fig must be pollinated. Pollination is carried out by a blastophagous insect.

The essential role of the “fig wasp”

To understand how pollination of a fig tree occurs, you should already know that our domestic fig trees exist in two forms: female fig trees and male fig treesalso called caprifig trees. In July, the female of the blastophagous insect, the famous “fig tree wasp”, enters one of the figs of a male fig tree to lay her eggs. The larvae can then spend the winter well protected in the male fig, before transforming into insects in the spring. Male and female insects, which reproduce in the fig.

Then, only the females will leave the fig, while the males, born without wings, will dig tunnels allowing them to escape. When leaving, females will rub their wings on male flowers which are generally found at the top of the fig. They will then be covered in pollen. While the males are condemned to die in the fig of the caprifig tree, the females can therefore escape with pollen, towards the figs of our domestic fig trees, which produce edible figs.

The wasp which then enters the fig will therefore allow the pollination of the female fig. But when she goes through the shell, she loses her wings and cannot get out again. She cannot lay her eggs in the fig again, because the flowers, different from those of the caprifig tree, have longer pistils that prevent her from doing so. So much the better, because otherwise the figs from female fig trees would no longer be edible!

What then happens to the female blastophagus that comes to bring the pollen inside the edible fig? Enzymes transform it into protein. So it is fair to say that eating a fig is like ingesting a wasp.although in reality the remains of the insect have completely dissolved to enrich the fig, which is also rich in magnesium, calcium and fiber!

This pollination process therefore produces edible fruits only on female fig trees.domestic fig trees. As for male fig trees, called “caprifig trees” or “wild fig trees”, they only produce inedible figs. How can you tell the difference between the two?

How do you know if a fig tree is male or female?

Pour distinguish a male fig tree from a female fig treepay close attention to when the figs form. A tree bearing figs between April and mid-July is more likely to be a male fig tree, unlike fig trees covered in figs in summer, which are probably female. And if your fig tree bears figs in winter, then it is definitely a male tree.

So if female fig trees produce edible figs, Male fig trees have a real role. Because only their figs produce pollen. During the winter, it is also the caprifig trees that shelter the blastophagous insects, which then completely parasitize their figs. These end up falling to the ground without ever reaching maturity and there is no way to make them edible.

A dead blastophagous wasp in a fig. ©Shutterstock.