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spoopy figs
(mander.xyz)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Most commercially and home grown produced figs are self-pollinating, only a few wild fig species require wasps to pollinate them. So most people will only ever see wasp-free figs.
Oh thank god.
I know commercial farming is usually terrible, but this bit just seems like a win
Mostly it’s commercial animal farming that is heinously immoral. The big problems with commercial crop farming is the change to landscape (and therefore ecosystem) and reduction of native species and diversity due to farming of one specific species. These can be mitigated (if humans cared), obviously the animal farming problems too, but the animal cruelty is way more evil, and harder to fix institutionally.
I’m pretty sure about these things, but I am not an expert on these specific matters. Never trust some rando as a source. Always do your own research. And even then be careful….. we live in some weird ass times
How can people not believe in basic evolution when we have created self-pollinating figs
Though i once saw a bug crawl out of a ripe fig, just as i was about to eat it.
Better than finding half a bug in the fig after your first mouthful
It was a hell of a surprise when I cut open a peach and the pit was smaller and softer than usual and it split in two in my hands and a little slightly drowsy looking winged ant crawled out of one of the halves and started walking around on the counter. Little guy must have had such a long journey. I don't know how the hell they got INSIDE the pit.
Apart from the cultivar part, I don't think that's true. Apparently even Aristotle has spoken about fig wasps (without really understanding what they are or do of course). So maybe there are some cultivars that are self a pollinating now, but it seems like all non-cultivated fig trees are dependent on this kind of pollination. And btw, there aren't a "few" wild species, there are over 850 of them!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_coevolution_in_Ficus?wprov=sfla1