Lesson 02 · 3 min read
The four kinds of fig
Common, Smyrna, San Pedro, caprifig — sorted by one question: does it need a wasp?
There are thousands of named fig varieties, but only four types, and the type tells you the single most important thing about a tree before you plant it: whether it can make fruit on its own, or whether it needs to be pollinated by the fig wasp.
| Type | Needs the wasp? | Breba crop | Main crop | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | No | Often, no pollination needed | Yes, no pollination needed | Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Celeste, Violette de Bordeaux — and every variety we sell |
| Smyrna | Yes | Rarely | Only if pollinated | Calimyrna (Sari Lop), Zidi, Marabout |
| San Pedro | Main crop only | Yes, no pollination needed | Only if pollinated | Desert King, Lampeira, San Pedro |
| Caprifig | It is the wasp's home | — | Three crops, mostly inedible | Roeding, Stanford, Maslin, Croisic |
Try it
Does my fig need the wasp?
No wasp needed. Ever.
- Breba crop
- Often — sets on its own
- Main crop
- Sets on its own
- Examples
- Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Celeste, Violette de Bordeaux — and every variety we sell
- Without the wasp
- Nothing changes. This is the type almost everyone grows, in every state.
Common figs: the easy ones
Common figs are parthenocarpic — Greek for "virgin fruit". Their flowers swell into fruit without ever being fertilised, so the tree needs no wasp, no partner and no help. This is the type almost everyone on Earth grows, and the type of every fresh fig you've bought in a shop. It's the reason a fig tree in Ohio, or a pot on a balcony in Chicago, fruits perfectly well in a state where the wasp has never lived.
Smyrna figs: the ones that need a matchmaker
Smyrna types will not ripen a single fig without pollen. Unpollinated, the fruit swells to the size of a marble in June and then drops — every one, every year, forever. When they are pollinated, they produce some of the most prized dried figs in the world: the nutty, seedy, honeyed figs of the Turkish Aegean, and their Californian descendant, Calimyrna. The whole California dried-fig industry runs on this type, and on the wasp it depends on. That story is worth its own lesson.
San Pedro figs: half and half
San Pedro types split the difference. Their breba crop sets on its own; their main crop needs the wasp. Where the wasp doesn't live, that makes them a breba-only tree — which is exactly why Desert King is beloved from San Francisco up through the Pacific Northwest: its breba crop ripens in early summer, before the fog and the short season can spoil anything, and nobody misses the main crop that never comes.
Caprifigs: the ones you don't eat
The caprifig is the wild form, and the wasp's nursery. It carries pollen, feeds the wasp through the winter, and produces figs that are dry, pithy and not worth your time — with a couple of odd exceptions. Growers of Smyrna figs keep caprifigs the way beekeepers keep hives. Everything about them, here.