Giving a Fig

The complicated relationship between figs and fig wasps

Bronwen Scott
3 min readDec 11, 2022

Among my collection of plants from Far North Queensland and Cape York Peninsula are two ring ins. One is Hibiscus insularis, a tree hibiscus from tiny Phillip Island a few kilometres south of Norfolk Island in the SW Pacific Ocean. The other is Ficus podocarpifolia, a scrawny scrambling fig from the red rock gorges of the Mitchell Plateau of Western Australia. The fig had a tough start in life, reduced to a leafless (and apparently lifeless) stick for months. But I kept an eye on it, watering sparingly, and it started to put out leaves again. It is doing well — so well that it has produced fruit.

Figs are strange and wonderful things. What we tend to think of as a fruit is actually a syconium, a case lined with tiny flowers. When pollinated, those flowers turn into minuscule fruit, each containing a seed. In syconia of the edible fig (F. carica), the fruit are densely packed and succulent. In many other species, they’re sparse and fibrous, and have a flavour and texture that is not for us.

The tiny figs of Ficus podocarpifolia. Cultivated plant, Far North Queensland. © Bronwen Scott.

With the flowers on the inside, pollination is not easy.

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Bronwen Scott
Bronwen Scott

Written by Bronwen Scott

Zoologist, writer, artist, museum fan, enjoying life in the tropical rainforest of Far North Queensland. She/her. Website: bronwenscott.com

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