Family | MORACEAE | Mulbery or Fig Family

Tribes

• Artocarpeae, includes breadfruit
• Castilleae
• Dorstenieae
• Ficeae, Ficus genus
• Maclureae, Maclura genus
• Moreae, Morus genus

Ficeae Tribe and Ficus genus              

Figs

The heavy rains in the spring caused my fig tree to fall over. Rather than cutting it back to the ground I let it leaf out and to my surprise it produced fruit. The fruit has been slow to ripen due to the stress and lack of water. I read about figs before I selected my fig tree, and  Dr. George McEachern with Texas A and M is one of the best experts on fruit growing in Texas. He has an information sheet online that is helpful to anyone contemplating adding a fig tree here in Texas (Link).

Figs are one of the seven species listed in the Bible, 

Deuteronomy8:  7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, ^fa land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

The botanical prints below, helped botanist understand species that are native to other parts of the world. 

1771

Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770)

Trew, C.J., Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini, in hortis curiosorum nutrit, vol. 8: t. 73 (1771) [G.D. Ehret]

Maclureae Tribe and Maclure genus

Maclura pomifera, Osage-orange, Horse-apple, Bois D'Arc, or Bodark  is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, typically growing to 8–15 metres (26–49 ft) tall. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on different plants. The fruit, a multiple fruit, is roughly spherical, but bumpy, and 7–15 cm in diameter. It is filled with a sticky white latex. In fall, its color turns a bright yellow-green. It is not closely related to the orange: Maclura belongs to the mulberry family, Moraceae, while oranges belong to the family Rutaceae

Maclura pomifera
Bois D'Arc bark

Bibliography_________________________________________________

Condit, Ira J. Fig Culture in California. Berkeley, Calif: College of Agriculture, University of California, 1933. Print.

Eisen, Gustavus A. The Fig: Its History, Culture, and Curing: With a Descriptive Catalogue of the Known Varieties of Figs. Washington: Washington, Govt. print. off, 1901. Print.

Stansel, R H, and R H. Wyche. Fig Culture in the Gulf Coast Region of Texas. College Station, Tex: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1932. Print.

Texas Gardener

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~Grassroots Horticulture~

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