Fig common seeds

Fig / Ficus carica

Subtropical deciduous ficus. Wood with light grey, smooth bark. The leaves are large, line-by-line, 3-5-7 palm-lobed or split, stiff, with falling tides. In the leaf axils, shortened generative shoots develop, bearing inflorescences of two types - caprifigi and figs. They develop on different trees, characterized by the fact that the axis grows into a globular oval formation with a hole at the top and a cavity inside, where there are small inconspicuous separate flowers. Caprifigs - smaller inflorescences containing male flowers and figs - female gall flowers with short columns - larger inflorescences in which male flowers are reduced and female flowers have long columns, and after fertilization form single-seed fruits - peanuts.

The figs turn into juicy, sweet, pear-shaped puffies with seeds inside. They are covered with a thin skin with small hairs. At the top there is a hole - a peephole covered with scales. The fruits of figs are colored yellow to black and blue, depending on the variety. Yellow-green fruits are more common.

Fresh fig fruits contain up to 24% (according to other data, up to 75%) sugar (glucose, fructose), and dried fruits - up to 37%. The fruits contain organic acids, tannins, proteins, fats, and coumarins (the main ones are psoralen and bergapotin).

Fresh fig fruits contain up to 1.3% protein, 11.2 sugars, acids only 0.5%. In dried figs, the share of protein increases to 3-6%, sugar to 40-50%, which gives them a deep sweet taste and a feeling of satiety (the calorie of dried fruits - 214 kcal per 100 g). There are also vitamins (β-carotene, B1, B3, PP, C) and minerals (sodium - 18 mg per 100 g, potassium - 268, calcium - up to 34, magnesium - up to 20, phosphorus - up to 32). Potassium is so abundant that the contents of figs are inferior only to nuts.

Immature fruits contain pungent milky juice and are therefore inedible.

Figs are eaten fresh, dried and canned. Fresh fruit is brewed in jam and jam. There are many very small seeds in the fruits, which taste sugary or mildly sweet. For drying, more suitable light, with golden skin and white flesh, about 5 cm in diameter. Dry the nodules 3-4 days under the sun. It is believed that the smaller the fruit, the more delicious the figs. If each fruit has more than 900 seeds - it is a very good, gentle fig. If less than 500, it’s mediocre. There is a seedless variety that does not need to be pollinated with the help of wasps, but its nodules are not so tasty and juicy.

Figs are unpretentious: they can grow on poor lands, rocky slopes, rocks, stone walls. However, powerful trees are found in river valleys, with good water supply. The figs begin to bear fruit in the second - third year, lives up to 30-60, and in some cases up to 300 years.

For a long time figs have been used in medicine. They were used as a remedy for cough, for throat diseases, for which the pods were boiled with boiling water or hot milk. The flesh of the fruit has a good sudorific and antipyretic action. In addition, the iron in the figs is larger than in the apples, so he was recommended for iron deficiency anaemia patients. Since the leaves contain coumarin (a substance that increases the body’s sensitivity to solar radiation), they are also used. Figs are very nutritious, soothe body heat and quench thirst. Figs are useful for heart palpitations, bronchial asthma, coughing, chest pains, pleura roughening; eating it with almonds helps with a strong weight loss. Dried figs have laxative effects. Fig syrup is a tonic for children: it increases their appetite and improves digestion. Fig syrup helps with muscular rheumatism, skin diseases, kidney stones and bladder, increased liver volume and pain (in case of female genital diseases).

In indoor culture, it is able to produce fruits that mature more often in late summer or autumn, sometimes in spring. Figs reproduce with both seeds and cuttings.

Winter cuttings are cut from one-two-year-old shoots and planted early in the spring, before buds bloom, in light, sour ground. Green cuttings are planted in late spring - at the beginning of summer in sand and contain until rooting in a damp environment under a glass or other glass cover. Both these and other cuttings in a warm place are easily rooted. Rooted cuttings are planted in pots.

In summer they are kept on light windowsills with abundant irrigation, in winter - in a cool place with very moderate irrigation, so as not to dry the ground at all. Until the age of three, each spring, before growth, is transplanted into turf-terp land. Adult plants are transplanted in two or three years into large dishes, into heavier ground.