If you love figs, you may have heard some unsettling lore about them: that every fig hides a wasp, because these insects need to crawl inside and die in order for the fruit to grow. But are there ...

If you've ever bitten into a fresh fig, you've tasted the delicious result of one of nature's most extraordinary and longstanding partnerships. But the figs in your local grocery store only tell a ...

Figs are in season and ready to be sliced onto charcuterie boards, mixed into jams, and tossed into fresh salads. But if you're a fan of the fig, you may have heard a rumor that's not so appetizing: ...

So, what’s the deal with fig wasps? Because sweet, shy figs bloom internally, many of the 800-plus varieties across the world require an intimate type of pollination to ripen into an edible fruit. All ...

Nils Bernstein is a food, drink, and travel editor and writer based in Mexico City. He is the food editor for Wine Enthusiast and has written for such publications as Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Food & ...

For the most part, the path of a vegan has one simple rule: Don't consume animal products or engage in the exploitation of animals. Easy enough, it would seem, until the topic of figs comes into the ...

If you don’t believe in soulmates, then the closest thing is the scientific notion of codependent evolution. (Very different from plain ol’ codependency.) This evolutionary kismet takes millions of ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Figs and fig wasps have evolved to help each other out: Fig wasps lay their eggs inside the fruit where the wasp larvae can safely develop, and in return, the wasps pollinate the figs.

Fresh figs are irresistible from late summer through early fall, when trees droop from the weight of these luscious, caramelly fruits. Nothing stands between fig lovers and this bounty, except … wasps ...

University of Maryland Biology Professor Carlos Machado studies the extraordinary partnership between figs and their tiny pollinators—and what happens when some evolutionary partners turn into ...