Marceilles White Surprise

[Michael]

Haven't seen much here about this one here. I got it two years ago as a tissue culture. Tiny four inch tall plant less than the width of a Q-Tip. I've read several threads here about how good tissue cultures are. After one year, it grew, but no fruit. Now in Year 2, this one is three feet tall in a six gallon pot and I found a couple ripe figs on it. 35 grams and surprisingly tasty!

Here they are:

[Ktrain]

Looks great!

[Red_Sun]

@Michael

I think this may be the Tena which has been labeled as White Marseilles. Post the leaf shape. Tena has yellow/sugar inside. Real WM has honey amber inside.

[Michael]

Red_Sun, here's the leaf. What do you think?

[Red_Sun]

This is not WM, Peter's Honey, or Lattarula/Italian Honey. Tena has long fingered leaf. The leaf in the back looks like Tena. The front one is closer to Brunswick.

Most of the current circulated "White Marseilles" is actually Tena.

[Figwasp]

It is definitely a Tena. There is some amount of variability to Tena's leaves, making some of them have this look where the fingers are straight (less jaggedness) but with bulbing ends. I think that is what you mean when you say Brunswick? I don't have a Brunswick to compare, but I do have pictures of my Tena from this and last year. Last year it had leaves like this. This year fingers are a little more jagged, but still long fingers with short pams (sticking with the hand terms)

[Red_Sun]

Typical leaf of Tena is like open hand with 5 fingers straight out. Brunswick and a couple others have 3 longer mid fingers and more toward the middle. Fingers have rough edges, not like Tena's smooth edges. But lead shapes do vary quite a bit from time to time.

[Michael]

I did some Googling and I think I agree I have a Tena. It still tastes good, so I'm okay with that.

Does anyone have any good links to a collection of fig tree variety leaves, so checking something like this can be much easier?

[Figwasp]

I think the consensus here is that fig tree leaves are rarely a good variety indicator by themselves. They can be used to differentiate a Tena from a White Marseilles, sure. But I don't think they could be used to differentiate between a Tena and Brunswick. The fruit, though, is a dead giveaway on that. For many varieties, all bets are off if all you have is a leaf pattern.

[Red_Sun]

Well, we get Fig Database and the old Figs4fun. Both are incomplete and not perfect. Some say we can't rely on them. But not everyone can analyze DNAs....

http://figs4fun.com/Varieties.html

[Michael]

The figs4fun database further confirms that I have a Tena, but I also have a young Lattarula, so maybe I have a Marcielles White after all, and I get to expand my variety list by one!

[Red_Sun]

Recently there is a nice discussion thread about White Marseilles, Lattarula/Italian Honey, Tena etc. That has been sorted out.

The rest is not clear. Peter's Honey could be Lattarula/Italian Honey. Lattarola has a pink inside and is also in the mix....