Fig, (Ficus carica), plant of the mulberry family (Moraceae) and its edible fruit. The Common fig is indigenous to an area extending from Asiatic Turkey to northern India, but natural seedlings grow in most Mediterranean countries; it is cultivated in warm climates. In the Mediterranean region the fig is so widely used, both fresh and dried, that it is called “the Poor man’s food”.  The fruit contains significant amounts of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. 

The fig plant is a bush or small tree, from 1 m (3 feet) to 10 to 12 m (33 to 39 feet) high, with broad, rough, deciduous leaves that are deeply lobed or sometimes nearly entire. The leaves and stems exude a white latex when broken.

Fig fruits, known as Syconia, are borne singly or in pairs above the scars of fallen leaves or in axils of leaves of the present season. Flowers are staminate (male) or pistillate (female) and enclosed within the inflorescence structure.

Fig trees are propagated from cuttings of dormant wood taken in February in the Northern Hemisphere and planted in nursery rows. These grow in one season to a height of 1 m (3 feet) and are ready to transplant at the end of the growing season. The trees thrive in a wide range of soil types.