black current
One of the odd exigencies of living on the coast of British Columbia, is the moderating effect of the Japan or Kuroshio Current (the Pacific counterpart of the Gulf Stream), on our climate. While we are at 50 degrees north in latitude, (4 degrees north of Quebec City), it is possible to grow figs here. Several of them are ripening on a branch outside my window, where they look incongruously tropical against the backdrop of northern conifers.
While the fruits are oddly testicular in shape, the fig cannot reproduce sexually at these latitudes because we are lacking the tiny wasp that evolved to pollinate it. This might be just as well, as male fig wasps live out their little lives as wingless sex slaves which never get to leave the fig in which they were born. So our figs, sweet as ambrosia though they may be, are merely sterile ovaries which will never set seed.
Fortunately the trees are easily propagated asexually from hardwood cuttings, taken in the late winter
The fig is one of the oldest cultivated trees, going back to at least the Bronze Age in the region of Asiatic Turkey. It has the dubious distinction of being the first tree mentioned by name in the Bible. Its leaves were used by Adam and Eve to cover their genitalia after expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The fig was likely the ‘forbidden fruit’ from the ‘tree of knowledge.’ Jesus actually curses a fig tree and causes it to wither.
What did the Bible have against figs? Where they considered immoral in their deliciousness ? Was it the shape of the fruits? We may never know, but I for one will continue to eat from ‘the tree of knowledge.’ At least for the next couple of weeks.
tree of knowledge
