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caprifig (KAP-ruf-fig) - n., the wild fig ()Ficus carica) with an inedible fruit used to pollinate edible figs; the fruit of the same.
The word I had on my list was caprification, the process of fertilizing edible figs by placing a branch of caprifigs in a fruiting fig tree so the latter's flowers can get fertilized by fig wasps from the caprifigs, but that's too confusing as a first concept -- so backing it up a level. Figs have almost completely enclosed flowers that can be fertilized only by certain species of wasps that burrow into them to lay eggs, and carry pollen from one to the other. It can be hard to get the wasps to transfer to a domesticated variety, so horticulturalists will put a branch from a caprifig in the tree to spur the process. Called caprifig from Latin caprifīcus, literally goat-fig, because the fruit were considered fit only for goats (or possibly because no one but goats would eat them).
---L.
The word I had on my list was caprification, the process of fertilizing edible figs by placing a branch of caprifigs in a fruiting fig tree so the latter's flowers can get fertilized by fig wasps from the caprifigs, but that's too confusing as a first concept -- so backing it up a level. Figs have almost completely enclosed flowers that can be fertilized only by certain species of wasps that burrow into them to lay eggs, and carry pollen from one to the other. It can be hard to get the wasps to transfer to a domesticated variety, so horticulturalists will put a branch from a caprifig in the tree to spur the process. Called caprifig from Latin caprifīcus, literally goat-fig, because the fruit were considered fit only for goats (or possibly because no one but goats would eat them).
---L.
