The Huffington Post
First came the news that capers and cloves are neither roots, fruits, leaves, nor veg: they’re both the flower buds from shrubs and trees, respectively. Once harvested, they’re dried. Capers are then brined or salted. But figs, which can be eaten fresh or dried, look far more like a “regular” fruit to me than either of those and are filled with what seem to be seeds. So, I was surprised to learn that they’re technically flowers, and that some need to house dead wasps (oh, good) in order to fruit. Is a fig a fruit? Nope, and it’s not a berry either. It’s an inverted flower . This is more technically known as an “inflorescence,” the Ecological Society of America (ESA) said . It happens when a bunch of flowers and seeds are housed in a “bulbous stem”. That, botanists might be aware, poses a bit of a problem for pollinators and for the fig itself. Usually, the parts of a plant that can reproduce are external. That way, animals like bees and other factors like the wind can, e.g., spread their pollen and help it grow and fruit. But when the parts of the plant responsible for these processes are locked away in the walls of a bulb, pollinators can’t reach them, and normal reproductive behaviour is off the table. This is where the female fig wasp comes in for wild species of the plant. How do wasps help to create figs? There’s an absolutely tiny hole at the top of the fig called the ostiole. Amazingly, the queen of a pollinator called the fig wasp fits into this modified-leaf-lined cavity. But the passage isn’t easy. Often, the wasp will lose her wings and antennae on their way into the fruit, the ESA explained. Once she’s in there, the queen lays her eggs among the bundled flowers (anyone else feel queasy?). She also, crucially, brings in pollen from other figs that would have had no other way to get in, pollinating the ovaries to create fruit. The queen dies, and her body is used as an energy source for the growing fig. So... what happens to the eggs?! I’ll need you to brace yourself for this part. The brothers, which are born without wings, hatch and fertilise their sisters while they’re still unhatched. Then, they begin the doomed task of tunneling to the outside world. They live their entire life cycle in the fig, meaning they never escape the fruit; they die there. The path is to let the ladies out. When the girls are born, they start to collect pollen. Some fig wasp species have a special pouch for the job, but others just pick it up as they go along. Then, they leave through the pathways the boys made, and the horrific cycle can begin all over again. Does that mean I’m eating wasps every time I eat figs? Not always, and not complete ones. Seedless figs may have been cultivated as early as 11,400 years ago , presumably by traumatised tree owners who thought, “I cannot allow this in good conscience”. Thankfully, most commercially produced figs use a method like this, which means the fruits don’t need to be pollinated. So no, the fig from your supermarket probably doesn’t have wasps in it . But the ESA pointed out that because the boy wasps stay behind in figs grown traditionally, “animals, including humans, who eat figs that have not been commercially cultivated likely consume dead wasps”. Anyone else feeling far less charmed by those aesthetic fresh fig cheeseboards? Related... I Just Learned What A Clove Is Made From – And It's Not A Fruit, Root, Leaf, Or Veg I Just Learned What Capers Are Made From, And It's Not A Fruit Or A Vegetable People Baffled As They Discover What Paprika Is Really Made From
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