• ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    3 hours ago

    Most commercially and home grown produced figs are self-pollinating, only a few wild fig species require wasps to pollinate them. So most people will only ever see wasp-free figs.

    • flora_explora@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      35 minutes ago

      Apart from the cultivar part, I don’t think that’s true. Apparently even Aristotle has spoken about fig wasps (without really understanding what they are or do of course). So maybe there are some cultivars that are self a pollinating now, but it seems like all non-cultivated fig trees are dependent on this kind of pollination. And btw, there aren’t a “few” wild species, there are over 850 of them!!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_coevolution_in_Ficus?wprov=sfla1