– Ecological importance:
– Up to 20% of wild parsnip fruits are parthenocarpic.
– Seedless wild parsnip fruits serve as decoy defense against seed predation.
– Utah juniper has a defense against bird feeding.
– Parthenocarpy provides food for seed dispersers when pollination fails.
– Some plants require pollination for parthenocarpy, while others do not.
– Commercial importance:
– Seedlessness is desirable in fruits like banana, pineapple, orange, and grapefruit.
– Parthenocarpy is valuable in crops like fig, tomato, and summer squash.
– Parthenocarpy increases fruit production in dioecious species.
– Horticulturists have developed parthenocarpic cultivars of various plants.
– Some parthenocarpic cultivars are ancient, dating back over 11,000 years.
– Misconceptions:
– Most seedless grape cultivars are seedless due to stenospermocarpy, not parthenocarpy.
– Parthenocarpy is not equivalent to parthenogenesis in animals.
– Parthenocarpy involves fruit formation without seed formation.
– The plant equivalent of parthenogenesis is apomixis.
– References:
– Various studies have explored parthenocarpy in different plant species.
– Hormones like gibberellin, auxin, and cytokinin can induce parthenocarpy.
– Plant hormones are rarely used commercially for parthenocarpy.
– Some parthenocarpic cultivars are genetically modified organisms.
– External links:
– Research on vegetative parthenocarpy in cactus pears.
– Detailed information on parthenocarpy from Wikipedia.
– Categories related to plant morphology and reproduction.
In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilisation of ovules, which makes the fruit seedless. The phenomenon has been observed since ancient times but was first scientifically described by German botanist Fritz Noll in 1902.
Stenospermocarpy may also produce apparently seedless fruit, but the seeds are actually aborted while they are still small. Parthenocarpy (or stenospermocarpy) occasionally occurs as a mutation in nature; if it affects every flower, the plant can no longer sexually reproduce[citation needed] but might be able to propagate by apomixis or by vegetative means. Examples of this include many citrus varieties that undergo nucellar embryony for reproduction, instead of solely sexual reproduction, and can yield seedless fruits.