Figs are grown on trees, typically in warm climates like the Mediterranean. The process of how figs are made is quite unique because their flowers are hidden inside the fruit itself. The crucial part of fig production involves a special type of fig wasp that pollinates the flowers inside the fig. Here is how figs are made and pollinated:
- Figs have flowers inside the fruit rather than on the outside.
- Female fig wasps crawl through a tiny hole in the fig to reach the flowers inside.
- If the fig is a male type (inedible), the wasp lays eggs inside, and the eggs hatch. The larvae then mate, and males dig tunnels for the females to escape.
- The females carry pollen from the fig where they developed to other figs, pollinating them.
- In female figs (the edible ones), the wasp pollinates the flowers but cannot lay eggs inside.
- Usually, the wasps lose their wings entering the fig, making it a one-way trip, and some wasps die inside.
- The pollination by wasps helps the fig fruit ripen.
The fig fruit itself is a cluster of many small flowers enclosed within a fleshy stem, and the crunchy seeds inside figs are the fruits of these individual flowers. Additionally, some figs can develop without pollination (parthenocarpic), but the classic pollination by fig wasps is an essential natural process for many fig varieties.
