![]() ![]() It grew next to the house where Vern Gifford raised two kids, saw numerous grandchildren and went quickly while in his 90s. That slip endured several thousand miles at sea and then a slow 1,200 mile drive down the east coast of the United States. How old was it on the Azores before a slip was taken? We’ll never know. That tree, or it clones, has been in the presence of a lot of human life. They grow big green figs similar to the Kalamata figs of my ancestral home, the Mani, in Greece. The tree is gone now but at least four of those slips are still growing and are now trees themselves. Some 70 years later the original slip, now an aging tree, was losing a battle with dry rot so I took several slips off the tree and got them to root. Either she or her relatives brought a cutting from a fig tree in the Azores to Florida via Boston and planted it next to their house in DeLand, Florida. She was from the Boston area but her family was directly from the Azores, Portuguese being their first language as in my family Greek was. The grandfather of a friend married a Portuguese woman back in the 1930s. Of course, the fig would not be allowed in the United States now but it got here when folks weren’t concerned about such things. On a personal note, I have a fig tree in my front yard that is at least 80 years old, and probably much more, from the Azores. It is edible but not prime - tasteless actually - and is not improved by cooking. The one-inch fruit goes from yellow to dark red when ripe. As its name implies it has leaves similar to citrus trees. The Banyans grow in the warmer areas of the United States including Florida, Texas, Arizona and Southern California.Ī third fig in Florida is the Shortleaf Fig or Ficus citrifloia. But, I would cook with it and wrap with it. I would want more independent confirmation before I tried to eat one. benghalensis as being edible so I would view it as suspect. There is only one original reference to the leaves of the F. Some fig leaves in some areas are cooked and eaten. Fig leaves are also used to impart flavor to fire cooked foods. While its leaves are said to be edible, they are more often used as plates and for wrapping food. The reddish fruit of the Banyan tree is not toxic per se but they are barely edible, the worst of famine food. It has a circumference of about a half a mile, is some 80 feet high and has (as of 2008) 2880 aerial roots reaching down to the ground. The largest is in India and covers four acres. The Banyan tree is also a fig, now called Ficus benghalensis (ben-gal-EN-sis) meaning from Bengal. The Indians also used the dried latex like gum. That latex can also be used to curdle milk for cheese making. They ate the ripe fruit, used the stems for arrows, made bowstring and netting out of the bark of the roots. ![]() The Miccosukee and Creeks indians called the tree a phrase that gets translated into the “sticks to you” perhaps a reference to the latex sap. The Florida fig is Ficus aurea, FYI-kuss AR-ree-ah, or FEEK-uss AW-ree-ah, Ficus is an old Latin name for the tree or fruit and probably comes from the older Greek word for fig, Siga (SEE-gah and earlier sykon.) Aurea means golden, referring to the figs’ color when ripe. The tree simply keeps growing out and down, covering acres. The horizontal branches send down vertical “prop” roots that grow into trunks. ![]() The Banyan “walks.” The first time you see one you are amazed. Usually the original victim simply dies and disappears. Once it does It slowly takes over the tree, enveloping it, sending down more roots. The Strangler Fig often starts as an epiphyte, a seed “deposited” by a bird in the top of a tree. ![]()
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