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Eating an 11,000 Year Old Fruit

2024-06-07 · explainer · Hank · 4:41 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Explainer · tags: self promotion

Hank explains that a mutant fig tree that grew seedless fruit without wasps, an evolutionary dead end, was kept alive by people planting its cuttings, making it a strong case for the first domesticated plant; we may still eat fruit from that same tree, which is why a fig is on the 2024 Crash Course coin, on sale for its last day.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — How figs are pollinated by wasps, and a mutant fig tree with seedless fruit that could not reproduce

  • ★★ Hank explains that fig trees hide their flowers inside a hard pear-shaped structure; a special wasp crawls in through a little hole, fertilizes the flowers and lays eggs. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank says a fig tree from sometime before 11,400 years ago had a hole too small for wasps but grew seedless fruit without fertilization, so it could not reproduce: an evolutionary dead end. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — People spread the mutant tree by cuttings; archaeological figs from the Jordan Valley; possibly still eaten today

  • ★ Hank imagines nearby humans finding the tree and marveling that its figs were super sweet and seedless, though there was no way to make more of it. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says fig trees are exceptionally good at growing from cuttings: a branch stuck in the ground will usually grow roots. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank argues a planted cutting is not really a clone at all but the same tree: a branch of the first tree that keeps growing. — 00:01:50
  • ★★★ Hank says dried, mostly seedless figs without wasp parts were found at an 11,400-year-old site in the Jordan River Valley, and similar figs at later sites show people spread the tree. — 00:01:50
  • ★★★ Hank says this makes a compelling case that the fig tree was the very first domesticated plant on Earth. (hedged) — 00:02:19
  • ★★★ Hank says there's a chance the Neolithic farmers' cuttings have been propagated thousands or millions of times over 11,400 years, so people still eat figs from that same tree. (hedged) — 00:02:19

  • ★★★ Hank insists he is not speaking metaphorically: it is the same tree, and we still eat the same fruit from it as the first farmers in human history. — 00:02:48

    “we are still eating the same fruits from the same tree as the first farmers in human history.”

00:03:12 — Hank tastes figs, vows to eat every seedless fig, and explains the fig on the Crash Course coin

  • ★★ Hank sums up: the tree was a genetic dead end, but because people liked its fruit it is still alive 11,400 years later. — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Hank says that so far we can't be sure which fig variety is the one from that tree. (unsure) — 00:03:12
  • ★ Hank tastes a fig and loves it, but it has seeds, so it is not the one from the first tree, which is a bit of a bummer; we should eat figs more. (playful) — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Hank says he will spend the rest of his life eating every seedless fig he can, hoping to have eaten from the same tree as Earth's first farmers. (playful) — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Hank says this story is why a fig is featured on the reverse side of this year's (2024) Crash Course coin, which people have been asking him about. — 00:03:12 · Crash Course coin, Crash Course
  • ★★ Hank says the unbroken chain by which we still enjoy the same sweet fruit as the first farmers means something really big to him. — 00:03:12

00:04:01 — Last day to buy the 2024 Crash Course coin; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says today is the very last day to get the Crash Course coin; each coin lets Crash Course reach 2,000, 10,000 or 20,000 learners, and the coins will never be available again. — 00:04:01 · Crash Course coin, Crash Course
  • ★★ Hank says Crash Course exists because people who can pay, pay, so that people who can't don't have to; buyers help it continue and get a coin. — 00:04:01 · Crash Course

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: common fig · domestication

Also: agriculture · Crash Course · Crash Course coin · fig wasp · Jordan Valley · Neolithic Revolution · parthenocarpy · vegetative reproduction

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