Col de Dame Blanc

The Col de Dame family genuinely traces to Mallorca in Spain's Balearic Islands, documented through Montserrat Pons i Boscana's experimental fig orchard, Son Mut Nou, on the island's west coast — an orchard where many varieties have reportedly grown for over 200 years. The French name Col de Dame ("collar of the lady," or Coll de Dama in Spanish/Catalan) references the fruit's long neck, said to resemble the high collars and jeweled necklaces fashionable among French royalty in earlier centuries. Col de Dame Blanc has a pale green to yellowish skin and red-pink flesh, is grown mainly in southern France, and ripens from mid-August to mid-October with average production. It is a common (self-fertile) fig type. Genetic testing of some circulating Blanc strains has raised real questions among collectors about which specific trees are true to the original, so sourcing from a known collector matters for this variety specifically.