David Mackay

Figs have featured prominently in art for thousands of years, often as a symbol of hidden sexuality or of modesty. The reason fig leaves are used in this way is because a distinguishing feature of figs is that they hide their own sexual organs – their flowers – inside the fig, rather than openly and flamboyantly displaying them as do so many other plants. Each species of fig has its own unique species of wasp that pollinates it. The wasp that pollinates Ficus racemosa is Ceratosolen fusciceps. The male wasp, as shown in this painting, is a blind and wingless creature that lives its whole life (of perhaps a few days) within the dark confines of the fig in which it is born. The female wasp burrows out of the fig and flies off in search of another fig in which to lay her eggs, pollinating the flowers within the second fig as she enters its dark confines. Once the wasp has completed her work, the fig is done with hiding and the rich, red colour of the ripe fruit (in this species, at least) signals its attractive readiness for consumption so that marauders may spread the fig’s seed over the land.