Fig

I drew the fig cut in half, because the interior is where the story is. From the outside it looks like an ordinary round fruit. Cut open, it shows a dense mass of tiny flowers growing inward, packed into a fleshy case. In this fig print the whole fruit and the opened one sit together, so the plain skin and the crowded interior can be read side by side. It is a plant that hides its flowers, and the cut is the only way to see them.

In shortThe common fig, Ficus carica, is a deciduous tree from the Mediterranean and western Asia. What we eat is a syconium, a hollow fleshy case with hundreds of tiny flowers inside. The plate shows whole figs beside a fig cut open.

Key Facts

Is a fig really a fruit?

Botanically, a fig is not a true fruit. It is a syconium: a hollow, fleshy receptacle with hundreds of tiny flowers growing on the inside. The only way in is a small opening at the end opposite the stalk.

This arrangement explains why a fig tree never seems to flower. The blossoms are there, but they are enclosed, so the eye never meets them. The small seed-like grains in the pulp are what the flowers become, each one a tiny single-seeded fruit. The Chinese name for the fig, wúhuāguǒ, means fruit without flowers, and it records the same observation. What looks like a single fruit is closer to a whole inflorescence turned inside out and made soft and sweet. The fruit ripens in shades of green, brown or purple, depending on the variety, and the colour of the skin says little about the pulp inside.

How is a fig pollinated?

Wild figs depend on a tiny fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes, for pollination. The female wasp crawls in through the small opening, moves pollen between the flowers and lays her eggs inside. The partnership between figs and their wasps is among the closest in the plant world.

Most figs grown for eating do not need the wasp. Common-type fig trees are parthenocarpic, which means they set fruit without pollination, and that makes them easy to grow in a garden. The Smyrna types are the exception: their fruit develops only when fertile seeds form, and the seeds give them a nutty flavour. Gardeners in cooler countries usually choose a common type, because a tree that fruits alone needs no wasp, no second tree and no special conditions.

What does a fig tree look like?

A fig tree is a deciduous, bushy, often multi-stemmed tree or shrub, usually about 3 to 9 m tall and as wide, with a rounded crown. Its leaves are broad, rounded and lobed. The fruit is 5 to 10 cm long and ripens in late summer or autumn, and a small extra crop sometimes forms in spring.

Break a leaf or a stem and white latex runs out. The sap contains compounds that irritate skin, and on skin exposed to sunlight it can cause a rash, so gloves are sensible when pruning. Ripe fruit is eaten fresh, cooked, preserved or dried. In cooler countries it does best fan-trained against a sunny, sheltered wall, and restricting its roots in a container or planting pit can improve fruiting. The tree also tolerates poor, dry ground, which is part of why it has spread so widely around the Mediterranean.

Why have people grown figs for so long?

People have grown figs for so long because the fruit is sweet, nourishing and easy to dry. Archaeological evidence suggests the fig was among the earliest fruit trees ever cultivated, and some researchers place it before wheat and barley.

Fresh figs are fragile and last only a few days once picked, so drying made them useful. Dried figs were a portable, high-energy food for travellers and armies, and in the ancient world they were a main sweetener before cane sugar reached the West. Fig trees also became landmarks in Mediterranean villages, where old specimens stand with thick, gnarled trunks. Mediterranean food has depended on the fig since the earliest records, and the fruit still appears fresh, dried and cooked across the region.

Drawing the fig

The plate shows whole figs beside a fig cut open. The whole fruit gives the teardrop shape and the smooth skin. The cut fruit gives the structure: a dense interior of red and pink, packed so closely that it reads as a pattern before it reads as a single colour.

That interior is the reason the fig is worth a plate. A photograph tends to reduce a cut fig to a wet pink smear, and the whole fruit alone says nothing about flowers. Drawing both lets the eye move from the closed surface to the crowded inside. The hand-drawn digital illustration keeps the skin and the cut face distinct, so you can see where one ends and the other begins, and what the plant keeps hidden stays visible. The studio’s species cards include a short card for this plate.

Where does a fig print work on a wall?

A fig print suits a kitchen, a dining room, a guest bedroom or any Mediterranean-style interior. The red and pink of the cut fruit reads richly in a dark frame, and warmer and softer in pale oak. The plate belongs to the Mediterranean Table collection and appears in the Mediterranean kitchen guide. In the photograph below, the fig and olive plates hang in a guest bedroom. For hotels and guest accommodation, the studio plans plates like these within wider hospitality projects.

Fine-art print →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the fig the same as a rubber plant or weeping fig?

They belong to the same genus, Ficus, but they are different species. The edible fig is Ficus carica, a deciduous Mediterranean tree. Houseplants such as the rubber plant and the weeping fig are tropical evergreens grown for their leaves, not their fruit.

When are figs in season?

The main crop ripens in late summer or autumn. Some trees also carry a smaller early crop in spring. Fresh figs last only a few days after picking, which is why they were long a local delicacy and why dried figs became the traveller’s food.

Do figs contain wasps?

Not the figs sold in shops. Common-type varieties ripen without pollination, so no wasp is involved. In figs that do rely on a fig wasp, the female enters, lays eggs and dies inside, and the fig breaks her body down. What is eaten is the ripened flesh.

What are the main kinds of fig?

Horticulturists group figs into common, Smyrna and San Pedro types, according to how they set fruit. Well-known varieties include Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Calimyrna and Adriatic. Skin and flesh colour vary widely, from green and yellow to deep purple, and the flesh inside ranges from pale amber to deep red.

How is this print made, and how does it reach me?

There are two formats. The digital download is a high-resolution file that you print yourself, at home or at a print shop; no physical item is shipped. The fine-art print is printed to order on archival paper or canvas, framed or unframed, in sizes from small prints to over 150 cm (60 inches), and delivered to your door.