is the ficus carica the only one edible species?

18 years ago

Hi,

I wonder wheather some other species than f.carica are edible or not. I usually see adult tress of ficus benjamina and f. microcarpa loaded with huge crops of small fruits. The birds eat them, thou they're not a valid reference for humans... They may not be tasteful at all, but perhaps coud be seasoned somehow or even jam made out of them...

Anyone knows about poisonous ficus especies? I think I've heard something about it some time ago...

Thank you. Paul.

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Comments (7)

bonsaist
18 years ago
Paul,
Ficus Carica is the most popular ficus species, but not the only edible. There's a Ficus Sycamorous, it bear very sweet aromatic figs. The trees are usualy large. It's native to the middle east and part of africa.
Check out my link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ficus Sycamorous
lord_of_the_green
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you Bonsaist.
Ficus Sycamorous looks delicious!
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chills71
18 years ago
If you want to consider related fruits, the mulberry is related to figs and is a great fruit. Mulberries are delicious and exceptionally easy to grow. There are a number of selected varieties as well. Also, Che (mandarin melon berry or Cudrania tricuspidata) is also related to figs. I can't say much about this one, except to say that it resembles both figs and mulberries.

~Chills
bonsaist
18 years ago
Chills, Mulberry is delicious and diffinitly easy to grow.. I know it's related to figs, but you can't tell by the flavour. both figs and mulberries have unique flavour.
The word Sycamorous is made up of two greek words. Syca means fig, and Morous means mulberry. You can see why it was cold that by looking at the shape of the sycamore fig leaves, shape similiar to mulberry but the leaf texture resembles figs.

Bass
chills71
18 years ago
Bass...I've had mulberries in the yards of almost all the houses I've ever lived in. They are delicious, no discussion there (well the good ones are, I've got one that I wouldn't choose over eating grass if I was truly hungry). I am hoping my Illinois Everbearing gives me fruit this year.

I am adding a Che this year, though I really don't know what to expect about the fruit. (one of those minor fruits whose descriptions do not seem to agree on flavor)

~Chills
idogcow
18 years ago
What temperature is the sycamore fig hardy to? I'd love to grow one, but I have a hunch it gets a bit too cold in zone 8b for it.
bonsaist
18 years ago
zone 8b seems too cold for it.. I have one in my greenhouse and the one night temperature inside went down to 28 degrees and it was badly damaged... I hope it would recover.
The trees that are grown in the middleeast are more hardy than the trees grown in Africa. I guess mine was a seedling from the tropical african areas.

Bass