Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Its genus is simply the old Latin name for this very fruit, while its species name means ‘of Caria’ — an ancient Anatolian land whose orchards made the fruit famous. Snap any twig, leafstalk or unripe fruit and it weeps thick white {latex} that leaves the skin blistering and sun-sensitive. What everyone takes for its fruit is really a hollow fleshy {syconium} — a closed green pouch lined on the inside with hundreds of tiny flowers that never see daylight. Those hidden flowers are pollinated by a minute wasp that squeezes in through a pinhole {ostiole} at the pouch’s tip. Its leaves are big and sandpaper-rough, 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) long and cut into three to five bold, finger-like lobes. It grows as a spreading deciduous shrub or small tree, 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m) tall, with smooth grey bark and thick, contorted branches. It fruits most heavily when its roots are cramped against a warm wall or in a pot, sulking into leafy growth when the soil is too rich. Charred remains from the Jordan Valley show it was cultivated some 11,000 years ago — quite possibly the earliest fruit tree ever farmed. Its soft teardrop fruit — ripening green to purple-brown, eaten fresh or dried and famous inside Newton’s biscuit — sits pressed straight against the twigs.

Accepted Answer

Ficus carica

Name That Plant #023