2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Most Russians can name two or three species of plants from the genus Ficus growing in homes and offices, while the encyclopedic Internet project "The Plant List" has eight hundred forty-one (841) species in the ranks of the genus. The fruits of most Ficus species, despite the toxic latex flowing inside the stems and trunks of plants, are quite edible. However, among such a variety of species that adorn our fragile planet, humans have singled out only one species, which has been widely cultivated in countries with warm climates since ancient times. This is "Ficus carica", which has many different names and gives a person satisfying fruits that can support the work of the human cardiovascular system
Siconius - "false fruit" or seed
What we usually call the fruit of the Fig tree plant (aka the Fig tree, aka the Fig, aka Ficus carica) is actually the fruit of miniature single-seeded nutlets that love to get stuck between the teeth or huddle under the dentures of a person who decides enjoy healthy fruit. Nature, before inventing a refuge for the human embryo, trained for sixty million years on the seedlings of the Ficus plant, now called "figs" or "figs".
The flowering period of Ficuses does not attract insects of different stripes, since they are not covered with fragrant or bright flowers, like most terrestrial plants. Their miniature numerous flowers are hidden inside the syconium, covering the inner side of its receptacle wall with a thick rug. For pollination of its inaccessible flowers, Ficus "entered into a contract" with a special species of wasps with long proboscis, with which he pays, giving them a part of the "territory" of the receptacle for laying eggs. In the photo below, you can see a couple of wasps on the inside of the syconium cracked from the heat.
Wealth of Ficus seed fruits
Unlike the figure of three fingers, which has the name of the same name with the Ficus seed and means that the person to whom this figure is addressed will receive nothing, the figs of most plants of the Ficus genus are edible and contain a number of useful chemical elements (proteins, glucose and fructose, fats, vitamins, potassium …), thanks to which they are able to quite quickly quench a person's hunger and thirst.
Among all species of Ficus, the leader in usefulness is the infructescence of the Fig tree, widely cultivated throughout the planet, and therefore well known to the Russians. Moreover, the usefulness of dried figs is much higher than fresh fruits, and therefore a hearty delicacy is available all year round.
Ficus Benjamin
Quite a popular species of the genus, decorating Russian dwellings and offices with its foliage. Its fruits, which indoor plants cannot boast, are not edible, but they are too beautiful, and therefore they got into my article.
Ficus Sycamore
The orange-pink figs of Sycamore, born in the ancient lands of Egypt, may have satisfied the hunger of the Holy Virgin Mary and her earthly husband Joseph, when they had to save the son of God from the terrible order of King Herod. Among the Egyptian Christians, called "Copts", there is a legend that the holy family, on their difficult journey through Egypt, sometimes had to hide under the crown of Sycamore.
Ficus religious
If Ficus Sycamore helped save Jesus Christ from reprisals in infancy, then the religious Ficus became an accomplice in the "enlightenment" of the Buddha himself. After all, it was under such a tree that Gautama Buddha was meditating when "enlightenment" (or "bodhi") descended upon him. This was the reason for another name for the plant - "Bodhi Tree".
As if rejoicing in such good luck, the thick-stemmed Ficus religious at the time of fruiting is abundantly covered with bright fruits, however, considered inedible, and even in the absence of wind, mysteriously rustles with its original leaves, which have a heart-shaped shape and end with a long tip. People believe that the gods themselves live on leaves, making them move continuously.
Dwarf ficus
The specific epithet "dwarf" refers to the small size of the evergreen leaves of the plant. The plant itself cannot be called a dwarf in any way, since it is a fast-growing liana, nimbly draping a support that has turned up.
Tourists in Taiwan or Singapore are offered a local delicacy - jelly made from fruits of Ficus dwarf. For the preparation of jelly, dried fruits are used, turned inside out and peeled from seeds.
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