in @"Charlie Dodgson"#164 thread On the history of Caprifigs i explained that with monecious ficus (around half of the ficus species), each and every fig has male and female flowers. the female flowers open first and finish blooming before the male flowers open. i wrote...
i decided to be unlazy and look it up. the answer is quite simple, and should be familiar to those of us with at least a passing understanding of carica fig anatomy. for the rest of yous, female carica figs have female flowers with long styles. the long style makes it impossible for the female wasp to put her eggs in a flower's ovary. this doesn't stop her from trying. her futile effort results in the flowers being pollinated, which results in seeds.
in the male carica fig it's a different story. the figs contain male flowers but strangely enough they also contain female flowers. but there's something very different about these female flowers, they have short styles, which makes it possible for the female wasp to put her eggs in their ovaries. so instead of a seed developing, a wasp develops.
with monoecious figs, not only does every fig have male and female flowers, but it has both types of female flowers... some with long styles and others with short styles. the wasp attempts to put her eggs into all the female flowers, but she's only successful with the flowers with short styles. as a result, seeds only develop in the flowers with long styles.
this information is based on the following description of a ficus rubiginosa (monoecious) fig...
here's the source. and here's another source (with pics)...
this post was inspired by mike fons (figfair.com) posting a pic and video in goodfriendmike's facebook group of an open ficus rubiginosa fig with its wasps running around. at a glance though, looking at the pic of the open rubiginosa fig, i'd be hard pressed to correctly identify the 3 different types of flowers.
honestly i can't think of any practical use of the knowledge that monoecious figs have 3 different types flowers.
perhaps it's more practical to know that rubiginosa's wasp is here in california, unlike with ficus elastica. so it would make more sense to take ficus rubiginosa's pollen and inject it into a ficus elastica fig. if you correctly guessed when elastica's female flowers were open, and if the two species are compatible (they both probably have 26 chromosomes), then you should get seeds. and you could be pretty confident that the seedlings would be hybrids. congrats! you just created the world's 1st cross between ficus rubiginosa and elastica. maybe the hybrid would be happier in california than both parents. and perhaps rubiginosa's wasp would also pollinate the hybrid. lots of variable hybrid seedlings would pop up here and there and we'd have lots of fun trying to figure them out.
i decided to be unlazy and look it up. the answer is quite simple, and should be familiar to those of us with at least a passing understanding of carica fig anatomy. for the rest of yous, female carica figs have female flowers with long styles. the long style makes it impossible for the female wasp to put her eggs in a flower's ovary. this doesn't stop her from trying. her futile effort results in the flowers being pollinated, which results in seeds.
in the male carica fig it's a different story. the figs contain male flowers but strangely enough they also contain female flowers. but there's something very different about these female flowers, they have short styles, which makes it possible for the female wasp to put her eggs in their ovaries. so instead of a seed developing, a wasp develops.
with monoecious figs, not only does every fig have male and female flowers, but it has both types of female flowers... some with long styles and others with short styles. the wasp attempts to put her eggs into all the female flowers, but she's only successful with the flowers with short styles. as a result, seeds only develop in the flowers with long styles.
this information is based on the following description of a ficus rubiginosa (monoecious) fig...
here's the source. and here's another source (with pics)...
this post was inspired by mike fons (figfair.com) posting a pic and video in goodfriendmike's facebook group of an open ficus rubiginosa fig with its wasps running around. at a glance though, looking at the pic of the open rubiginosa fig, i'd be hard pressed to correctly identify the 3 different types of flowers.
honestly i can't think of any practical use of the knowledge that monoecious figs have 3 different types flowers.
perhaps it's more practical to know that rubiginosa's wasp is here in california, unlike with ficus elastica. so it would make more sense to take ficus rubiginosa's pollen and inject it into a ficus elastica fig. if you correctly guessed when elastica's female flowers were open, and if the two species are compatible (they both probably have 26 chromosomes), then you should get seeds. and you could be pretty confident that the seedlings would be hybrids. congrats! you just created the world's 1st cross between ficus rubiginosa and elastica. maybe the hybrid would be happier in california than both parents. and perhaps rubiginosa's wasp would also pollinate the hybrid. lots of variable hybrid seedlings would pop up here and there and we'd have lots of fun trying to figure them out.
