Figs contain the enzyme ficin that breaks down the female exoskeleton. Well, mostly. When you eat a fig pollinated through mutualism, you are technically eating the wasp, too. But fig wasps are very small, usually only about 1.5 millimeters long.

So yes, there is at least one dead wasp inside the figs that we like to eat. Don’t worry! We don’t end up chomping on wasp exoskeleton. The figs produce ficin, a special enzyme that breaks down the insect’s body into proteins that get absorbed by the plant.

If a single female enters a fig, she has plenty of flowers in which to lay her eggs, but she often faces competing females. Each fig contained about 400 flowers and each flower can feed one wasp larva. They found that, inside naturally growing figs, female wasps kill each other on a regular basis.

Figs have an obligate mutualism with tiny fig-pollinating wasps (family Agaonidae). Female wasps enter receptive syconia, where they pollinate female flowers. They also lay eggs into some flowers, where their larvae induce galls.

Considering how tasty and succulent these fruits are, you might be surprised to know that each and every fig also contains a dead wasp somewhere inside it. You won’t spot any damage to the fruit’s skin either; these wasps aren’t like worms that might dig their way into an apple or a peach.

As such, they require a specific kind of pollination that can only come from fig wasps– wasps that have to die inside the fruit in order for the fruit to mature, since figs cannot be pollinated by wind or normal bees. These hatch into larvae that burrow out, turn into wasps and fly off, carrying fig pollen with them.

This plant is self-fertile and does not need cross pollination. Brown turkey fig can be grown as a single-trunk tree or as a multi-branched shrub. Plant it for foliage interest, fruit, and as a conversation piece. A full sun to part shade lover, this tree is easily grown in organically rich, moist, well-drained soils.

The Brown Turkey fig has a variegated, rusted red to purple skin with slightly pale green shoulders. Pollinated seeds provide the characteristic nutty taste of dried figs. The overall flavor of a ready-to-eat Brown Turkey fig is decadently sweet, providing flavors of hazelnuts and confectionaries.