From the garden Figs in West Texas
August is fig time. Figs are a low maintenance, trouble- free, an easy crop to grow, well adapted to West Texas environment, and the fruit are atypical. Which leads us to several technical terms in today’s column that may help us appreciate this unusual fruit.
We’re going to call fig a “fruit,” but botanically fig is not a fruit, rather a collection of edible, inverted flowers that form a complex structure called a synconium (SINcone- ee-um). Synconia (plural) are false fruits since within the edible outer flesh are hundreds of tiny unisexual flowers that line interior walls. The synconium develops around the flowers and the entire structure (minus stem) is edible. The term syconium comes from the Ancient Greek word sykon, which means “fig” (Merriam-Webster).
Fig is one of the earliest domesticated crops. Its center of origin is attributed to the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of ancient Sumeria, modern- day Iraq. Sumerian stone tablets dating to 2500 B.C. reveal culinary use of figs. Earlier yet, carbonized fig fruits dating to 11,400 B.C. of the Neolithic Age, have been discovered in the Lower Jordan Valley of Israel (science. org). The spread of figs throughout the Mediterranean region is attributed to the ancient Greeks and the Romans.
Figs are commonly grown in the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions, locations that are hot, sunny, and dry for a large portion of the year. Likewise, figs are well suited for our hot, sunny, and dry West Texas regions.
The fruit are produced on large shrubs and not on trees like other common fruit. Shrubs are distinctly different from trees. Shrubs are plants with several stems originating from one root base, while trees have a single main woody stem that supports branches and has a distinct crown.
In the first paragraph, we noted that fruit of figs are atypical. Not only is the fruit a synconium, most commercial varieties do not need a pollinator to develop a mature fruit. Figs are parthenocarpic (PAR-then-oh-car-pick), where fruits develop without fertilization, resulting in seedlessness.
Fig shrubs are hardy to USDA zones 8 to 10 and to zone 7 when planted with a sheltered southern exposure. Plant in well-drained soils in full sun for maximum fruit production. Varieties that produce well in West Texas are ‘Black Mission’, ‘Brown Turkey’, and ‘Kadota’.
There will be more about on figs next week.
Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
