Syconium

: syconia) is the type of fruit borne by figs (genus Ficus), formed by an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface.

Once pollinated by a fig wasp, the individual florets inside the syconium develop into achenes or drupes, in which the seeds are enclosed by a layer of endocarp.

The wasps lose their wings in the process, and once inside they pollinate female flowers as they lay their eggs in some ovules, which then form galls.

4–6 weeks after egg laying, the wingless males emerge, mate with the females still in their galls, and cut a tunnel out of the syconium.

[6][7] The syconium is thought to have first evolved 83 million years ago in the Cretaceous[8] within an entomophilic clade within Moraceae that includes tribe Castilleae and genus Ficus, as the bracts protecting the inflorescence tightened to form the ostiole.

Cross-section of the syconium of a female creeping fig . The receptacle forms a hollow chamber, its inner wall (white) covered by a shell of rufous florets . Their long and curled, white styles occupy the centre. Each floret will produce a fruit and seed. The green, bract-lined ostiole , below, admits wasp pollinators .
Longitudinal section of Ficus glomerata syconium showing the fruit and fig wasps.