Green Ischia Fig

Green Ischia shares the same genuinely uncertain naming history as Black Ischia: English gardener Philip Miller documented Green, White, Black, and Brown Ischia figs starting with the 1731 edition of his Gardener's Dictionary, describing them as brought from the island of Ischia near Naples, Italy — a book influential enough that Thomas Jefferson kept a copy in his own library at Monticello. However, fig historians and modern collectors researching the question have found no actual evidence that the Green or Black Ischia grown in the US today genuinely trace to the island of Ischia, and no matching prototype trees have been found there; some historians suspect Miller substituted geographic names for figs whose original labels had been lost. Ira Condit's monograph treats Ischia Green as equivalent to the variety Verte. The fruit is small to medium, pyriform with a prominent neck, yellow-green skin with prominent lenticels, and pale flesh surrounding red pulp with a rich, sweet flavor and crisp, seedy texture.