Never mind just vegetarians having a problem eating figs. Anyone will probably be shocked when they find out just what they are eating along with the tasty fruit.
Have you ever heard of the fig wasp? This tiny insect apparently plays an essential role in the life cycle of a fig, as it is the plant’s one and only pollinator. So far, so good. Sounds reasonable, right?
The plant itself then returns the favor by giving the fig wasps their one and only source of food and shelter, and this is also, apparently, where the female will lay her eggs. Delightful, nature provides and all that.
According to How Stuff Works , this is something called “mutualism,” where both the plant and the insect provide for each other in their natural cycles. In other words, if you like eating figs , you wouldn’t have them without this “mutualism.” So that is good, right? To misquote Shakespeare, read on MacDuff.
The whole buzz of this story is that when a wasp pollinates a fig, she quite often gets stuck inside the darn thing. In fact, according to the Mirror Online , every edible fig contains at least one dead female wasp , or parts thereof. And, yes, guess where that goes when you are eating figs?
Yuck! Has this stopped you eating figs? I voted I never ate figs anyway in the @DailyMirror poll! Have your say: http://t.co/6xcDiBsrqh
— Tony Bianchi (@Voltamax2020) April 9, 2015
For those running out to pick a fig to find out if this is true, you won’t actually see the whole wasp inside the fruit. Apparently, an enzyme called ficin contained in the fig breaks down her carcass into protein. Yummy! So basically the fig eats the wasp, the wasp becomes part of the fig, and then, well, you eat it. At least you are getting some extra protein value when eating figs?
Fun fact: Wasps pollinate figs flowers & get stuck inside the bloom, so when you eat a fig, you are most likely eating dead decayed wasps!!
— Alli Brown (@alligatorr94) April 8, 2015
Apparently, fig farmers even buy whole bags of the little pesky critters so they can control the number of wasps that each plant can munch.
For anyone interested in the world of insects, the Inquisitr recently reported on the shocking tale of the crazy world of insect sex . With a title beginning with the words “50 Shades of Wrong,” you can just imagine the worst. At least it doesn’t feature the sex life of the fig wasp.
Just to cheer things up, included below is a photo of a colorful Double-eyed Fig Parrot in a fig tree. While he might take a peck or two, at least he doesn’t stay on board while you are eating figs!
The video at the beginning of this article gives more detail about the whole process between the canny little insects and the fig tree itself.
Let us know below if you have ever eaten figs, whether you enjoy eating figs, and whether you are planning on continuing to do so now that you know the truth.
[Image: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic James Niland ]
