Fig
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The Common Fig (Ficus carica) is a large shrub or small tree native to southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region (Turkey east to Afghanistan). It grows to a height of 3-10 m tall, with smooth grey bark. The leaves are deciduous, 12-25 cm long and 10-18 cm across, and deeply lobed with three or five lobes. The fruit is the well-known fig, 3-5 cm long, green ripening purple.
Cultivation and uses
An argument can be made that the edible fig is one of the first plants that was cultivated by humans. Literally thosands of varieties, most unnamed, have been developed or come into existance as human migration brought the fig to many places outside its natural range. It has been an important food crop for thousands of years, and was also thought to be highly benificial in the diet. The Common Fig is widely grown for its edible fruit, grown throughout its native area, and also the rest of the Mediterranean region and other areas of the world with a similar climate, including Australia, Chile, South Africa, and California, Oregon, Texas, and Washington in the United States.
Figs can be eaten fresh or dried, and used in jam-making. Most commercial production is as dried or otherwise processed forms, since the ripe fruit does not transport well, and once picked does not keep well.
Cultural & literary aspects
In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Adam and Eve clad themselves with fig leaves after eating the "Forbidden fruit" from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Likewise, fig leaves, or depictions of fig leaves, have long been used to cover the genitals of nude figures in painting and sculpture. Often these fig leaves were added by art collectors or exhibitors long after the original work was completed. The use of the fig leaf as a protector of modesty or shield of some kind has entered the language.
