King Ashoka

• Named after Ashoka the Great: The fig variety was named in honor of the Mauryan emperor, a ruthless warrior who later embraced peace, generosity, and public welfare. 
• Generous Pollen Producer: Just as Emperor Ashoka was known for his generosity, the King Ashoka Capri Fig is recognized as a generous pollen producer. 
• Overwintering Support: It provides a prolific overwintering mamme crop that shelters wasps through the cold winter months. 

Come time, millions and billions of tiny fig wasps will emerge from the mamme fig and enter the profichi.
By definition, a Mamme is a main crop fig which forms too late to ripen in the Fall and instead stays on and ripens in the Spring.

The profichi crop resemble edible figs, except they are filled with wasps and pollen-bearing stamens. This tree gets covered with wasps. This is an ancient tree.

****Caprifigs of Ficus carica produce three crops of syconia per year: the profichi which ripen in early summer; the mammoni which ripen in fall; and the mamme which overwinter on the tree and ripen in spring. The pollen-bearing profichi crop is used to pollinate the Calimyrna figs in June. The overwintering mamme crop house wasps through the cold winter months and are quite visible on the leafless branches. Female trees produce only two crops of syconia annually, a breba crop which ripens in early summer and a second (main) crop which ripens in fall. During the receptive (immature) summer stage, this second crop receives pollen from the mature caprifig profichi crop. Although caprifig syconia incubate and perpetuate the tiny fig wasp, seeds may also develop in the short-style flowers. This is especially true of mammoni syconia in which pollination (from profichi crop) results in some ovaries (without wasps) developing seeds with viable embryos."

• Availability: 9 In Stock