Wonder what fruit is this?

Seen this fruit before??Know what it is??Coconut??Still wondering....??
It's not a coconut...it's a FIG.


Fig
Ficus carica
Family: Moraceae


Description & storage Fig:
soft sweet fruit, full of small seeds and often eaten dried. Fresh figs are delicious and often jam and chutney is made from them. The skin of figs is very thin and ripe figs can't be kept or transported very well. As figs have to be picked when ripe you only can eat them fresh in the country of origin. In the warm countries the figs are dried for export and storage.


Tree / shrub
The fig tree/shrub grows upto 9m x 7m. Short histotory Figs are originally from small Asia and are one of the first fruits cultivated ever. The Greek mention them and around 60 A.C. and Plato promoted the fig as being the nutrition for athletes. A story is known of the Greek government that had forbidden all export of figs once to assure themselves a good outcome at The Olympic Games. The Greek knew about twenty nine fig sorts. Officially figs were imported to Europe around 1600. Today there are more than 600 different fig types.


Use Figs taste best consumed "warm" from the tree. They are dried often because they can't be stored.


Types and family
There are over 600 fig cultivars. Other peculiar characteristics A lot of fig plant races are used decoratively: like the rubberplant and the ficus benjamina; Dried figs contain a lot of sugar, about 60%. It is thought that that was the reason why Plato advised Greek athletes to eat many figs.
The white juice that drips out of the fruit if the the stalk has been broken off is called latex. It was supposed to represent the universal energy and was used as a remedy against infertility and to incite the breast feeding process.


Each fig cultivar has different shaped leafs; Dried figs consist for about 60% of sugar, contain a lot of vitamins and it is said that humans could live on figs alone. It is a very healthy fruit and you can consume as much of them as you like.


Figs and health

Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fiber. According to USDA data for the Mission variety, dried figs are richest in fiber, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamin K, relative to human needs. They have smaller amounts of many other nutrients. Figs have a laxative effect and contain many antioxidants. They are good source of flavonoids and polyphenols. In one study, a 40-gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced a significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity.
Detailed nutrient available @ http://www.thefruitpages.com/chartfigs.shtml

dried figs

figs on tree