syconium

Fig fruits, known as syconia, are borne singly or in pairs above the scars of fallen leaves or in axils of leaves of the present season. Flowers are staminate (male) or pistillate (female) and enclosed within the inflorescence structure. Long-styled female flowers are characteristic of the edible fruits of…

This structure, called a syconium, ultimately matures into a fig. The male flowers are usually arranged near the small opening at the upper end of the syconium, and the female flowers, much more numerous, line the interior. The female flowers are of two types, long-styled fertile flowers and short-styled…

…of the fig, called the syconium, which looks very much like a fruit. Inside the completely enclosed syconium are the tiny, individual flowers themselves. When a wasp egg is deposited in one of the female flowers, that flower develops a gall-like structure instead of a seed. The blind, wingless male…