“By themselves the figs could build a forest,” ecologist EJH Corner wrote almost a century ago. Now a fascinating book, Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: the secret history and redemptive future of fig ...

Figs and fig trees are familiar to a wide cross-section of human society, both as a common food and for their spiritual importance. What is less well understood is the global nature of this ...

The strangler fig is one of the most iconic trees of Costa Rica. They’re present throughout most of the country’s varied landscapes, their life history is fascinating, they’re a food source and home ...

Figs and fig wasps have lived in symbioses for centuries — wasps lay their eggs in figs, and pollinate the trees as recompense. But it’s not all altruism. The trees will fight back if the wasps renege ...

Dutifully, I bite into one fresh fig after another during a backyard discovery tour in Bethlehem. I’m trailing along behind fig fanatic Bassem Samaan, who schools my taste buds to appreciate figs ...

“This is what makes them very special: At any point in time in the tropical forest, there is a fig that has fruit.” German photographer Christian Ziegler, a tropical biologist by training who lives on ...

Some 550 years ago, so a story goes, the poet-sage Kabir was on a silt island in India's Narmada River. He was brushing his teeth with a twig. When he flung his toothbrush to the ground, up sprang a ...