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{{redirect|Fig|the sport federation|Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique}}
{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = ''Ficus''
| image = Sycomoros old.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = ''[[Ficus sycomorus]]''
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Rosales]]
| familia = [[Moraceae]]
| genus = '''''Ficus'''''
| genus_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
About 800, including:<br>
''[[Ficus albipila]]'' - Abbey Tree or ''tandiran''<br/>
''[[Ficus altissima]]''<br>
''[[Ficus americana]]''<br>
''[[Ficus aurea]]''<br>
''[[Ficus benghalensis]]'' - Indian Banyan<br>
''[[Ficus benjamina]]'' - Weeping Fig<br>
''[[Ficus broadwayi]]''<br>
''[[Common Fig|Ficus carica]]'' - Common Fig<br>
''[[Ficus citrifolia]]'' - Strangler Fig<br>
''[[Ficus coronata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus drupacea]]''<br>
''[[Ficus elastica]]''<br>
''[[Ficus erecta]]''<br>
''[[Ficus glaberrima]]''<br/>
''[[Ficus godeffroyi]]''<br>
''[[Ficus grenadensis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus hartii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus hispita]]'' L.<br>
''[[Ficus laevigata]]'' - ''Jamaican cherry'' <br>
''[[Ficus lyrata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus macbrideii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus macrophylla]]'' - Moreton Bay Fig<br>
''[[Ficus microcarpa]]'' - Chinese Banyan<br>
''[[Ficus nota]]''<br>
''[[Ficus obtusifolia]]''<br>
''[[Ficus palmata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus palmeri]]'' - Rock Fig<br>
''[[Ficus prolixa]]''<br>
''[[Ficus pumila]]''<br>
''[[Ficus racemosa]]''<br>
''[[Sacred Fig|Ficus religiosa]]'' - Sacred Fig<br>
''[[Ficus rubiginosa]]'' - Port Jackson Fig<br>
''[[Ficus rumphii]]'' - Rumpf's Fig<br>
''[[Ficus stahlii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus sycomorus]]''<br>
''[[Ficus thonningii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus tinctoria]]''<br>
''[[Ficus tobagensis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus triangularis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus trigonata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus ulmifolia]]''<br>
''[[Ficus variegata]]'' Bl. var. chlorocarpa King<br>
''[[Ficus virens]]''<br>
''[[Ficus vogelii]]''<br/>
''[[Ficus wassa]]''
}}
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Figs, fresh | kJ=310 | protein=0.8 g | fat=0.3 g | carbs=19 g | sugars=16 g | fiber=3 g | source_usda=1 | right=1 }}
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Figs, dried | kJ=1041 | protein=3 g | fat=1 g | carbs=64 g | fiber=10 g | sugars=48 g | glucose=25 g | fructose=23 g | source_usda=1 | right=1 }}
'''Ficus''' is a [[genus]] of about 800 species of woody [[tree]]s, [[shrub]]s and [[vine]]s in the family [[Moraceae]], native throughout the [[tropics]] with a few species extending into the warm [[temperate]] zone. The most well known species in the genus is the [[Common Fig]]. [[Image:Bo Tree.jpg|thumb|left|Leaves of the Sacred Fig ''Ficus religiosa'']]
One species of this genus, the [[Common Fig]] (''F. carica''), produces a commercial [[fruit]] called a ''fig''; the fruit of many other species are edible though not widely consumed. Other examples of figs include the [[banyan]]s and the [[Sacred Fig]] (Peepul or Bo) tree. Most species are [[evergreen]], while some from temperate areas, and areas with a long dry season, are [[deciduous]].
==Fruit and pollination==
The fig is commonly thought of as [[fruit]], but it is properly the flower of the fig tree. It is in fact a ''false fruit'' or [[multiple fruit]], in which the flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass. [[Image:Fig.jpg|left|thumb|[[Common Fig]] fruit]]
The genus ''Dorstenia'', also in the fig family (Moraceae), exhibits similar tiny flowers arranged on a receptacle but in this case the receptacle is a more or less flat, open surface.
A fig "fruit" is derived from a specially adapted type of ''inflorescence'' (structural arrangement of flowers). What is commonly called the "fruit" of a fig is actually a specialized structure- or accessory fruit- called a '''syconium''': an involuted (nearly closed) receptacle with many small [[flower]]s arranged on the ''inner surface''. Thus the actual flowers of the fig are unseen unless the fig is cut open. In Chinese the fig is called 'fruit without flower'. The syconium often has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ''ostiole'') at the distal end that allows access by pollinators. The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to reproduce (lay eggs). Without this pollinator service fig trees cannot reproduce by seed. In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps. Technically, a fig fruit would be one of many mature, seed-bearing flowers found inside one fig.
Most figs come in two sexes: hermaphrodite (called '''caprifigs''' from goats - [[Caprinae]] subfamily; as in fit for eating by goats; sometimes called "inedible") and female (the male flower parts fail to develop; produces the "edible" fig). [[Fig wasp]]s grow in caprifigs but not in the other because the female trees' female flower part is too long for the wasp to successfully lay her eggs in them. Nonetheless, the wasp pollinates the flower with pollen from the fig it grew up in, so figs with developed seeds also contain dead [[fig wasp]]s almost too tiny to see.
When a caprifig ripens, another caprifig must be ready to be pollinated. Tropical figs bear continuously{{Fact|date=July 2007}}, enabling fruit-eating animals to survive the time between [[mast year]]s. In temperate climes, wasps hibernate in figs, and there are distinct crops. Caprifigs have three crops per year; edible figs have two. The first of the two is small and is called breba; the breba figs are olynths. Some selections of edible figs do not require pollination at all, and will produce a crop of figs (albeit without fertile seeds) in the absence of caprifigs or fig wasps.
[[Image:Ficus pumila Blanco1.203.png|left|thumb|19th century painting of ''Ficus pilosa'']]
There is typically only one species of wasp capable of fertilizing the flowers of each species of fig, and therefore plantings of fig species outside of their native range results in effectively sterile individuals. For example, in [[Hawaii]], some 60 species of figs have been introduced, but only four of the wasps that fertilize them have been introduced, so only four species of figs produce viable seeds there.
==Propagation==
Figs are also easily propagated from cuttings. An extraordinarily large self-rooted Wild Willowleaf Fig in [[South Africa]] is protected by the [[Wonderboom Nature Reserve]].
==Historical significance==
In June 2006, it was reported that figs dating back 11,400 years were discovered at [[Gilgal I]], a village in the Lower [[Jordan Valley]], just 8 miles north of ancient [[Jericho]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} There is evidence that figs were among the first [[cultivation|cultivated]] crop, because they were of a [[mutation]] which could not reproduce normally. It is proposed that they may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated ([[wheat]] and [[rye]]).
The phallic shape of the young fig is referred to in [[Song of Songs]] chapter 2 verse 13. The fig tree is sacred to [[Dionysus]] Sukites (Συκίτης).
Figs were also a common foodsource for the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. [[Cato the Elder]], in his ''[[De Agri Cultura]]'', lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian (''De agri cultura'', ch. 8).
==Figs and health==
[[Image:DriedFigs1.JPG|thumb|left|Dried figs]]
Figs are good source of [[flavonoid]]s and [[polyphenol]]s<ref> Functional food properties of figs [http://www.aaccnet.org/funcfood/pdfs/99-0122-01f.pdf] </ref>. Figs and other [[dried fruit]] were measured for their [[antioxidant]] content. A 40 gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity <ref>
Dried fruits: excellent in vitro and in vivo antioxidants[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15670984&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum] </ref>. Figs also have higher quantities of fiber than any other dried or fresh fruit.
==See also==
* [[List of fruits]]
* [[Moreton Bay Fig]]
* [[Fig Newton]]
* [[Miracles of Jesus#Controlling Nature|Miracles of Jesus]] – the Cursing of [[The Fig Tree]]
==External links==
* [http://www.figweb.org/Ficus/index.htm Figweb] Major reference site for the genus ''Ficus''
* [http://www.figweb.org/Interaction/Video/index.htm Video: Interaction of figs and fig wasps] Multi-award-winning documentary
* [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/fig.html Fruits of Warm Climates: Fig]
* [http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html California Rare Fruit Growers: Fig Fruit Facts]
* [http://www.nafex.org/figs.htm North American Fruit Explorers: Fig]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5038116.stm BBC: Fig fossil clue to early farming]
==References==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
{{Commonscat|Ficus}}
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Ficus variegata.JPG|Ficus variegata in Mongkok, Hong Kong.
[[Category:Accessory fruit]]
[[Category:Moraceae]]
[[Category:Fruits of Iran]]
[[Category:Plant morphology]]
[[Category:Fruit]]
{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = ''Ficus''
| image = Sycomoros old.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = ''[[Ficus sycomorus]]''
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Rosales]]
| familia = [[Moraceae]]
| genus = '''''Ficus'''''
| genus_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
About 800, including:<br>
''[[Ficus albipila]]'' - Abbey Tree or ''tandiran''<br/>
''[[Ficus altissima]]''<br>
''[[Ficus americana]]''<br>
''[[Ficus aurea]]''<br>
''[[Ficus benghalensis]]'' - Indian Banyan<br>
''[[Ficus benjamina]]'' - Weeping Fig<br>
''[[Ficus broadwayi]]''<br>
''[[Common Fig|Ficus carica]]'' - Common Fig<br>
''[[Ficus citrifolia]]'' - Strangler Fig<br>
''[[Ficus coronata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus drupacea]]''<br>
''[[Ficus elastica]]''<br>
''[[Ficus erecta]]''<br>
''[[Ficus glaberrima]]''<br/>
''[[Ficus godeffroyi]]''<br>
''[[Ficus grenadensis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus hartii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus hispita]]'' L.<br>
''[[Ficus laevigata]]'' - ''Jamaican cherry'' <br>
''[[Ficus lyrata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus macbrideii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus macrophylla]]'' - Moreton Bay Fig<br>
''[[Ficus microcarpa]]'' - Chinese Banyan<br>
''[[Ficus nota]]''<br>
''[[Ficus obtusifolia]]''<br>
''[[Ficus palmata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus palmeri]]'' - Rock Fig<br>
''[[Ficus prolixa]]''<br>
''[[Ficus pumila]]''<br>
''[[Ficus racemosa]]''<br>
''[[Sacred Fig|Ficus religiosa]]'' - Sacred Fig<br>
''[[Ficus rubiginosa]]'' - Port Jackson Fig<br>
''[[Ficus rumphii]]'' - Rumpf's Fig<br>
''[[Ficus stahlii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus sycomorus]]''<br>
''[[Ficus thonningii]]''<br>
''[[Ficus tinctoria]]''<br>
''[[Ficus tobagensis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus triangularis]]''<br>
''[[Ficus trigonata]]''<br>
''[[Ficus ulmifolia]]''<br>
''[[Ficus variegata]]'' Bl. var. chlorocarpa King<br>
''[[Ficus virens]]''<br>
''[[Ficus vogelii]]''<br/>
''[[Ficus wassa]]''
}}
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Figs, fresh | kJ=310 | protein=0.8 g | fat=0.3 g | carbs=19 g | sugars=16 g | fiber=3 g | source_usda=1 | right=1 }}
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Figs, dried | kJ=1041 | protein=3 g | fat=1 g | carbs=64 g | fiber=10 g | sugars=48 g | glucose=25 g | fructose=23 g | source_usda=1 | right=1 }}
'''Ficus''' is a [[genus]] of about 800 species of woody [[tree]]s, [[shrub]]s and [[vine]]s in the family [[Moraceae]], native throughout the [[tropics]] with a few species extending into the warm [[temperate]] zone. The most well known species in the genus is the [[Common Fig]]. [[Image:Bo Tree.jpg|thumb|left|Leaves of the Sacred Fig ''Ficus religiosa'']]
One species of this genus, the [[Common Fig]] (''F. carica''), produces a commercial [[fruit]] called a ''fig''; the fruit of many other species are edible though not widely consumed. Other examples of figs include the [[banyan]]s and the [[Sacred Fig]] (Peepul or Bo) tree. Most species are [[evergreen]], while some from temperate areas, and areas with a long dry season, are [[deciduous]].
==Fruit and pollination==
The fig is commonly thought of as [[fruit]], but it is properly the flower of the fig tree. It is in fact a ''false fruit'' or [[multiple fruit]], in which the flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass. [[Image:Fig.jpg|left|thumb|[[Common Fig]] fruit]]
The genus ''Dorstenia'', also in the fig family (Moraceae), exhibits similar tiny flowers arranged on a receptacle but in this case the receptacle is a more or less flat, open surface.
A fig "fruit" is derived from a specially adapted type of ''inflorescence'' (structural arrangement of flowers). What is commonly called the "fruit" of a fig is actually a specialized structure- or accessory fruit- called a '''syconium''': an involuted (nearly closed) receptacle with many small [[flower]]s arranged on the ''inner surface''. Thus the actual flowers of the fig are unseen unless the fig is cut open. In Chinese the fig is called 'fruit without flower'. The syconium often has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ''ostiole'') at the distal end that allows access by pollinators. The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to reproduce (lay eggs). Without this pollinator service fig trees cannot reproduce by seed. In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps. Technically, a fig fruit would be one of many mature, seed-bearing flowers found inside one fig.
Most figs come in two sexes: hermaphrodite (called '''caprifigs''' from goats - [[Caprinae]] subfamily; as in fit for eating by goats; sometimes called "inedible") and female (the male flower parts fail to develop; produces the "edible" fig). [[Fig wasp]]s grow in caprifigs but not in the other because the female trees' female flower part is too long for the wasp to successfully lay her eggs in them. Nonetheless, the wasp pollinates the flower with pollen from the fig it grew up in, so figs with developed seeds also contain dead [[fig wasp]]s almost too tiny to see.
When a caprifig ripens, another caprifig must be ready to be pollinated. Tropical figs bear continuously{{Fact|date=July 2007}}, enabling fruit-eating animals to survive the time between [[mast year]]s. In temperate climes, wasps hibernate in figs, and there are distinct crops. Caprifigs have three crops per year; edible figs have two. The first of the two is small and is called breba; the breba figs are olynths. Some selections of edible figs do not require pollination at all, and will produce a crop of figs (albeit without fertile seeds) in the absence of caprifigs or fig wasps.
[[Image:Ficus pumila Blanco1.203.png|left|thumb|19th century painting of ''Ficus pilosa'']]
There is typically only one species of wasp capable of fertilizing the flowers of each species of fig, and therefore plantings of fig species outside of their native range results in effectively sterile individuals. For example, in [[Hawaii]], some 60 species of figs have been introduced, but only four of the wasps that fertilize them have been introduced, so only four species of figs produce viable seeds there.
==Propagation==
Figs are also easily propagated from cuttings. An extraordinarily large self-rooted Wild Willowleaf Fig in [[South Africa]] is protected by the [[Wonderboom Nature Reserve]].
==Historical significance==
In June 2006, it was reported that figs dating back 11,400 years were discovered at [[Gilgal I]], a village in the Lower [[Jordan Valley]], just 8 miles north of ancient [[Jericho]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} There is evidence that figs were among the first [[cultivation|cultivated]] crop, because they were of a [[mutation]] which could not reproduce normally. It is proposed that they may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated ([[wheat]] and [[rye]]).
The phallic shape of the young fig is referred to in [[Song of Songs]] chapter 2 verse 13. The fig tree is sacred to [[Dionysus]] Sukites (Συκίτης).
Figs were also a common foodsource for the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. [[Cato the Elder]], in his ''[[De Agri Cultura]]'', lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian (''De agri cultura'', ch. 8).
==Figs and health==
[[Image:DriedFigs1.JPG|thumb|left|Dried figs]]
Figs are good source of [[flavonoid]]s and [[polyphenol]]s<ref> Functional food properties of figs [http://www.aaccnet.org/funcfood/pdfs/99-0122-01f.pdf] </ref>. Figs and other [[dried fruit]] were measured for their [[antioxidant]] content. A 40 gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity <ref>
Dried fruits: excellent in vitro and in vivo antioxidants[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15670984&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum] </ref>. Figs also have higher quantities of fiber than any other dried or fresh fruit.
==See also==
* [[List of fruits]]
* [[Moreton Bay Fig]]
* [[Fig Newton]]
* [[Miracles of Jesus#Controlling Nature|Miracles of Jesus]] – the Cursing of [[The Fig Tree]]
==External links==
* [http://www.figweb.org/Ficus/index.htm Figweb] Major reference site for the genus ''Ficus''
* [http://www.figweb.org/Interaction/Video/index.htm Video: Interaction of figs and fig wasps] Multi-award-winning documentary
* [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/fig.html Fruits of Warm Climates: Fig]
* [http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html California Rare Fruit Growers: Fig Fruit Facts]
* [http://www.nafex.org/figs.htm North American Fruit Explorers: Fig]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5038116.stm BBC: Fig fossil clue to early farming]
==References==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
{{Commonscat|Ficus}}
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Ficus variegata.JPG|Ficus variegata in Mongkok, Hong Kong.
[[Category:Accessory fruit]]
[[Category:Moraceae]]
[[Category:Fruits of Iran]]
[[Category:Plant morphology]]
[[Category:Fruit]]
