Did you know that a fig is a flower turned inside out? That soft pod of sticky summer sweetness is not a fruit at all. It’s actually an inflorescence – an inverted cluster of tiny, fleshy flowers. This flower is actually pollinated by fig wasps who use the fig as a breeding ground and nursery. But thank goodness, the delicate crunch you hear when you eat a fig is not the remains of a wasp, but
the sound of the seeds. Fig trees produce an enzyme called ficin that digests protein. Ficin dissolves the wasp’s body, reusing the nutrients to nourish the fig. The plant is the carnivore in this case, not you! Figs and wasps have a unique relationship, one of the best examples of mutualism in nature, where both of its members and the wider ecosystem benefit.
The fig provides yet more fascinating information
Professor Renee Borges
“symbiosis generates biological diversity”
