Pastiliere

Pastilière has a genuinely surprising and well-documented history that traces back further than most fig varieties discussed here. According to Ira Condit's definitive 1955 fig monograph, drawing on earlier botanical sources, the variety may have originated in Japan and been brought to Europe by the German-Dutch botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold during his expedition to study Japanese flora between 1823 and 1830. In 1845 the Italian botanist Gasparrini named a fig "Hirta del Giappone" ("hairy fig of Japan") for its downy fuzz and Asian origin, and in 1920 that variety was confirmed to be identical to Pastilière. The fruit has a distinctive light blue-toned skin, from a waxy coating, and notably hairy skin texture, with a pale pulp described by 19th-century botanist Gustav Eisen as good enough that "if the writer could plant only one blue variety, it would certainly be this fig." Today the variety is genuinely well established around Toulouse, France, and, despite earlier confusion suggesting an Italian origin, is now reportedly absent from Italian cultivation entirely. A confusingly similarly-named but genetically distinct variety, "Unknown Pastilière," also circulates among collectors and should not be assumed identical to the true, historically documented Pastilière.