Fig is neither a fruit nor a carnivorous plant: understand how it can digest wasps

Figs are not fruits or carnivorous plants: understand how they can digest wasps
Figs are not fruits, as many people imagine. In fact, it is an inverted flower, which houses a system capable of digesting the fig wasp.
Despite this, the fig is not considered a carnivorous plant. This is because digestion is part of a defense mechanism, explains Paulo Minatel Gonella, professor at the Department of Exact and Biological Sciences at the Federal University of São João del-Rei (UFSJ)
In nature, the fig needs to be pollinated to produce fertile seeds. As the pollen is inside the flower, only the fig wasp can reach it, entering through a small opening.
Carnivorous plants, in general, live in nutrient-poor soils. Therefore, they will capture insects as a source of supplementation, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential nutrients for them to survive, explains Gonella.
Is it possible to eat a fig with a wasp? The consumer will hardly find the insect in the fruit they bought in the supermarket. This is because the product sold reproduces in a different way and no longer needs pollination.
Over the years, researchers have genetically reproduced figs with the characteristics that most appealed to the consumer. As a result, the food for consumption only has internal female flowers and does not need fertile seeds, explains the UFSJ professor.
In addition, figs are bagged during their development, preventing wasps from entering and birds from feeding on them - in nature, birds are responsible for spreading the seeds.
As the seeds are not fertile, to cultivate the fig, farmers reproduce it through cloning and cuttings, a technique that uses cuttings to multiply species, promoting the rooting of parts of the plant in the soil, which may be branches, roots or leaves.
Which fruits cannot be stored together? See tips to avoid losses
Scrolly test
Read also:
CARNivorous PLANTS: they have traps even underground and in water
UNDERSTAND: Banana has a family and even a heart
WATCH VIDEO: Honey starts with the 'vomit' of bees, can last for a few years and there are poisonous types
See more food facts:
Is Açaí better sweet or savory?
Cocoa It was considered food of the gods by many people
Discover the exotic lemon that costs almost R$800 per kilo

Source: G1