Ficus carica Seeds | Common Fig
LATIN NAME: Ficus carica
COMMON NAME: Common Fig
Plant Profile
Among the ornamental and useful plants raised from seed, Common Fig (Ficus carica) stands out as a spreading, deciduous tree in the mulberry family. Common fig is sweet, secret fruit of warm wall, and round, green-to-purple fruits swell along the branch. It is a tree of open, sunny, deep, well-drained ground. Add these qualities together and you have a species well worth a place in the garden.
Science & Biotechnology
The fig has fed Mediterranean civilisations for eleven thousand years, and its pharmacy is pragmatic: the dried fruit is a fibre-rich, gently laxative food — fig syrups were a standard household laxative — while the milky latex contains ficin, a protease enzyme still used to tenderise meat and studied for antiparasitic and wart applications. Fig leaf and latex contain furanocoumarins that can cause photodermatitis on sun-exposed skin, a real caution for gardeners pruning in summer. Leaf extracts have shown modest glucose-lowering effects in small studies. Few fruit trees offer so much for so little care.
Within the mulberry family, Ficus carica is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. It is the kind of species that plant scientists reach for when they need reliable material for propagation and selection studies.
Uses & Benefits
Common Fig brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Common fig is a fine, historic tree of warm wall and the courtyard. Round to pear-shaped fruits swell into fine, sweet, soft flesh through late summer, eaten fresh from tree, dried into sweet figs of old trade and pressed into fig jams of warm kitchens. It has been written up in culinary and botanical papers for sweet fruits and fig-wasp story, and it is a fine, long-lived tree of open, sunny, deep, well-drained garden. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.
Figs are ancient functional food: fiber-rich, gently laxative through their ficin enzyme and mucilage, and the latex was a traditional wart remedy. Fig leaves and bark appear widely in folk medicine across the Mediterranean and Asia.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Common Fig under ordinary good conditions. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.
Our Take
Common Fig repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Common Fig often pair it with these related subjects: