Fruit

In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would include plum, apple and orange. However, a great many common vegetables, as well as nuts and grains, are the fruit of the plants they come from.

Seedless Fruits

Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are seedless. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges and mandarin oranges), table grapes, and watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit set may or may not require pollination. Most seedless citrus fruits require a pollination stimulus; bananas and pineapples do not. Seedlessness in table grapes results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.

Related Topics:
Cultivars - Bananas - Pineapples - Citrus - Orange - Mandarin orange - Grapes - Watermelon - Parthenocarpy - Embryo - Stenospermocarpy

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