A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Syconium, (fruit of Ficus, Moraceae), a type of multiple fruit: “a syncarp with the achenes borne on the inside of a hollowed-out receptacle or peduncle, as in Ficus” (Radford 1974); an inflorescence type with a flat, wide floral receptacle supporting tens to hundreds of tiny sessile flowers. This receptacle encloses itself in a fruit-like structure with an orifice on the top. Within this structure lay the unfertilized flowers and, when fertilized, the fruits: syconium,-ii (s.n.II), abl. sg. syconio, nom. & acc. pl. syconia, dat. & abl. pl. syconiis [> Gk. sycon (s.n.II), a fig; Lat. ficus]; see multiple fruit; cf. bibacca,-ae (s.f.I), sorosis,-is (s.f.III); see coenocarp.

Syconus,-i (s.n.II), abl. sg. sycono; also syconium,-ii (s.n.II), abl. sg. syconio: “(obsol.) such fruits as that of the Fig, consisting of a fleshy receptacle loaded with flowers, each producing its own proper seed-vessel” (Lindley).

NOTE: this is also a type of accessory fruit, q.v., (derived from the non ovarian receptacle, possibly the peduncle), “multiple fruit surrounded by a hollow, compound, fleshy receptacle, as in Ficus” (Radford 1974).

NOTE: Sycon is the genus name of a group of sponges with larval structures that resemble the fruit of a fig. The Greek word is apparently declined as a decl. III word, the plural Sycones; Syconosa, the neuter pl. of -osus, an order of sponges: Sycon,-is (s.n.III), abl. sg. Sycone.

NOTE: a synonym of syconium is hypanthium,-ii (s.n.II), q.v.