Mt. Etna Type???

W

Woodlot

Well-known member
I have ran across the term, "Mt. Etna Type Fig within several comments in this forum.

I had no idea what a Mt Etna type fig is but I didn't bother to look into it, until today.

After doing a brief online search, I'm still not sure whether Mt Etna is another name for Chicago Hardy, or whether it is a classification within which the Chicago Hardy Fig falls.

This leaves me with 2 Questions:

1-Are the several names of figs considered to be Mt.Etna Figs used by different people to describe the same fig, or does each of the names known as Mt Etna Figs describe a seperate unique fig within the Mt Hardy classification?

AND

2-If Mt. Etna is a classification of figs that consists of numerous unique figs, then are there any additional classifications of figs into which non Mt Etna Figs fall?

Hope I have not confused everyone! LOL
 
Woodlot said:
I have ran across the term, "Mt. Etna Type Fig within several comments in this forum.

I had no idea what a Mt Etna type fig is but I didn't bother to look into it, until today.

After doing a brief online search, I'm still not sure whether Mt Etna is another name for Chicago Hardy, or whether it is a classification within which the Chicago Hardy Fig falls.

This leaves me with 2 Questions:

1-Are the several names of figs considered to be Mt.Etna Figs used by different people to describe the same fig, or does each of the names known as Mt Etna Figs describe a seperate unique fig within the Mt Hardy classification?

AND

2-If Mt. Etna is a classification of figs that consists of numerous unique figs, then are there any additional classifications of figs into which non Mt Etna Figs fall?

Hope I have not confused everyone! LOL
Click to expand...
There are generally from my understanding a few ways to classify figs but the main ones are either by its flavor category such as honey, sugar, or berry types or its family classification. Some families of figs are the Mt. Etna, Adriatics, col de dames, Celeste, Bordeaux, hivernenca, black Madeira types, and so on. Hardy Chicago is a variety of Mt. Etna and within that grouping you have things like Azores dark, Bari, and others. They could have most likely at one point been the same fig but due to mutations and epidemics over lifetimes of being grown in different places and being copies of copies due to rooting cuttings things change and they start to show different characteristics. It just so happens that Chicago Hardy is the most popular variety in the Mt. Etna family as it is one of the most circulated types. So like another member stated. All Chicago Hardy’s are Mt. Etna but not all Mt. Etna are Chicago Hardy’s. I hope this helps.
 
"Mt. Etna Type", for me has become the descriptor for a genre of figs. In the same way that "Adriatic Type" tends to refer to green skinned figs with dark berry interior (Stella, Green Mich, WM #1, Angelito etc), Mt. Etna type would refer to those figs with the particular leaf pattern, fig size and flavour. Some of which include:

Hardy Chicago
Marseilles Black
Salem Dark
Black Bethlehem
Gino's Black
Talbot
Syrian Dark
Salem Dark
Azores Dark
Colasanti Dark (My personal favourite)
Dominick
Nerucciolo D'Elba
Vince #2 (if you can make it grow)
**And many, many more


So many more. They're all pretty similar. Flavour profile is very similar for me. Most notable differences between strains I've found is fruit size, production and vigour.

I've experiences probably half a dozen Hardy Chicago's that seemed to be different strains.

This type of fig is found widely and in southern Europe has close relatives all over the place.... so I'm not surprised there are so many genetically similar figs
 
TorontoJoe said:
"Mt. Etna Type", for me has become the descriptor for a genre of figs. In the same way that "Adriatic Type" tends to refer to green skinned figs with dark berry interior (Stella, Green Mich, WM #1, Angelito etc), Mt. Etna type would refer to those figs with the particular leaf pattern, fig size and flavour. Some of which include:

Hardy Chicago
Marseilles Black
Salem Dark
Black Bethlehem
Gino's Black
Talbot
Syrian Dark
Salem Dark
Azores Dark
Colasanti Dark (My personal favourite)
Dominick
Nerucciolo D'Elba
Vince #2 (if you can make it grow)
**And many, many more


So many more. They're all pretty similar. Flavour profile is very similar for me. Most notable differences between strains I've found is fruit size, production and vigour.

I've experiences probably half a dozen Hardy Chicago's that seemed to be different strains.

This type of fig is found widely and in southern Europe has close relatives all over the place.... so I'm not surprised there are so many genetically similar figs
Click to expand...
Nerucciolo delba for me is very different than mt etnas. NDE is earlier, different leaf pattern and fruit.

I would add RLBV to the list though
 
Everyone for the most part agree and disagree on the term "Mt Etna type" from what i have gathered over the years. From what i seen, vast majority deem anything green with berry flavor as this type with of course a few exceptions cuz..why not? LOL
 
Yeah...welcome to figs. LOL

Either way, they're a very tasty fig and everyone should have at least one...which is extremely easy to do.
 
Thank you for the great explanations!

I'm glad I asked.

With so many different named figs, it seems like there would be some way to categorize them, but it escaped my attention.

I will keep these posts to use as a guide, ready to aid me when I have sufficient experience with the unknown figs I am growing to aid in classifying and possibly even identifying some of them.

Thanks again!!!
 
TorontoJoe said:
"Mt. Etna Type", for me has become the descriptor for a genre of figs. In the same way that "Adriatic Type" tends to refer to green skinned figs with dark berry interior (Stella, Green Mich, WM #1, Angelito etc), Mt. Etna type would refer to those figs with the particular leaf pattern, fig size and flavour. Some of which include:

Hardy Chicago
Marseilles Black
Salem Dark
Black Bethlehem
Gino's Black
Talbot
Syrian Dark
Salem Dark
Azores Dark
Colasanti Dark (My personal favourite)
Dominick
Nerucciolo D'Elba
Vince #2 (if you can make it grow)
**And many, many more


So many more. They're all pretty similar. Flavour profile is very similar for me. Most notable differences between strains I've found is fruit size, production and vigour.

I've experiences probably half a dozen Hardy Chicago's that seemed to be different strains.

This type of fig is found widely and in southern Europe has close relatives all over the place.... so I'm not surprised there are so many genetically similar figs
Click to expand...
I used to have a Sal’s G, is that a Mt. Etna?
 
I used to have an in ground Sal’s G in the backyard and Hardy Chicago in the front yard. They were so similar if not identical in leaf and fruit that I gave away the Sal’s.

I think the Mt. Etna classification started on the old Figs 4Fun forum with a claim that Hardy Chicago had been traced to the upper slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, accounting for its cold tolerance. Since then figs with similarly shaped thick leaves and similar dark berry tasting fruit have then been grouped into this category. Varying degrees of cold tolerance may not always have been considered but these are generally hardy figs.

It’s useful having a category where leaf shape and fig taste are similar as long as you realize they didn’t all (or maybe not any) come from Mt. Etna, ‘etna’ figs with different names can be identical or nearly so (maybe originally the same fig with epigenetic changes from growing in different environments), and even Hardy Chicago is a relatively new name for an old fig. Etnas are the Ford truck of figs, not flashy, but dependable.
 
ktrain said:
Yeah...welcome to figs. LOL

Either way, they're a very tasty fig and everyone should have at least one...which is extremely easy to do.
Click to expand...

scott_va said:
I used to have an in ground Sal’s G in the backyard and Hardy Chicago in the front yard. They were so similar if not identical in leaf and fruit that I gave away the Sal’s.

I think the Mt. Etna classification started on the old Figs 4Fun forum with a claim that Hardy Chicago had been traced to the upper slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, accounting for its cold tolerance. Since then figs with similarly shaped thick leaves and similar dark berry tasting fruit have then been grouped into this category. Varying degrees of cold tolerance may not always have been considered but these are generally hardy figs.

It’s useful having a category where leaf shape and fig taste are similar as long as you realize they didn’t all (or maybe not any) come from Mt. Etna, ‘etna’ figs with different names can be identical or nearly so (maybe originally the same fig with epigenetic changes from growing in different environments), and even Hardy Chicago is a relatively new name for an old fig. Etnas are the Ford truck of figs, not flashy, but dependable.
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, how would you describe the leaf shape of a Mt. Etna Fig tree, as compared to an Adriatic or other fig type?
 
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