While in school, every child learns the basic parts of a flower and how insects, such as bees, buzz from flower to flower, ...

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 ...

Are there really dead wasps in figs? You’ve likely heard the rumors, and it turns out that it’s (sometimes) true. Sure, it sounds kind of gross and a little sad. But when you find out about the whole ...

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 ...

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 & ...

Contrary to prevailing wisdom concerning one of the most famous textbook examples of a tightly co-evolved mutualism, not every fig species is pollinated by its own unique wasp species. In this week's ...

These days many of the fig varieties that we buy in grocery stores and at farmers markets in the US don’t require pollination. Mission, those purplish-black ones I bought, Sierra, Celeste, Adriatic, ...

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 ...