ABOVE: A variety of the Edible Fig Ficus carica known as Brown Turkey grown in the UK.
Although several species of wild figs are edible by humans, the only species that is widely cultivated is Ficus carica which grows wild from the Mediterranean east to Afghanistan. Ficus carica has been domesticated for several thousands of years and numerous cultivars have been developed. In the wild F. carica is dioecious with separate male and female trees but the majority of cultivars are parthenocarpic with female trees able to produce sweet fleshy edible figs without pollination by fig wasps.
This two year old Ficus carica (Brown Turkey variety) is growing in the back garden of a house in Ealing, west London.This two year old Ficus carica has already started to produce fig fruits. See orange circle.In the sunnier, longer summers in southern Europe Ficus carica produces two crops of fig fruits a year. In London, UK a first ripe crop is produced in August and a second crop is started even as the first crop is ripening (see the small green fig at the top of photo above) but the UK summer is too short for second crop figs to survive and they wither on the tree without developing.The winters in the UK and most of Northern Europe are too cold for fig wasps to survive so only parthenocarpic varieties of figs can be grown in the UK. Because they do not produce seeds parthenocarpic fig plants are propagated by cuttings or marcots which means that they are clones or genetic replicas of the mother tree.A ripe female parthenocarpic fig fruit of Ficus carica (variety Brown Turkey) grown in London. These figs are delicious even though there are no seeds.
A second crop of figs develops in late summer on Ficus carica in the UK but these figs never ripen except in exceptionally long hot summer weather.
