Everything about the fruit and the fig tree

You might look at a fig tree and think that it has no flowers but it actually dose; just that they’re hidden from the outside world.

fig 1

The fig ‘fruit’ is actually a false fruit that encloses hundreds of these unisexual flowers.

fig 2

The concealed flowers are inaccessible to most pollinators. Just one group of wasps knows how to reach them-the fig wasps.

fig 3

But figs are selective about which species of wasp can enter the fruit. Each fig species has its unique wasp pollinator.

fig4

The female wasp enters the fruit to start business. Once inside, she cannot come out and dies within the fig.

fig5

First, the female wasp pollinates some of the female flowers, which mature before the male flowers do. This induces the ripening of the fruit. Then she lays her eggs on the other female flowers.

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Wasp larvae emerge from the eggs, feeding on the ripening fruit and growing rapidly.

fig wasp

The larvae metamorphose into adult males and females within the fruit. Only the females have wings. The wingless males will mate and die within the figs.

fig wasp

After the male and female wasps have mated, the female wasp collects pollens from the male flowers inside the fruit, which mature at the same time. The male wasp cuts open a hole in the fruit for the female to exit.

fig wasp

The female wasp files out in search of another tree to pollinate its female flowers with the pollens, and lay her eggs, thus repeating the entire cycle.

fig wasp

This interdependence of fig and the fig wasp is thus one of nature’s most intricate partnerships!

fig wasp

Source: “Taher Agroindustrial Group”

Source: “greenhumour.com“