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Spiritual_Jaguar4685 t1_j6k0ppr wrote

So fun fact, they did just discover a variety of seedless apples very recently. Not sure if they are marketable, but it's a "thing".

The difference here is some fruit can do something called "parthenocarpy", it basically means the plant will produce flowers that aren't fertilized and will still grow into fruit. The resulting fruit, since it wasn't fertilized, will lack the reproductive seeds.

It turns out some plants do this and those are our seedless fruits mostly.

Some plants, like apple trees, don't do this, so we don't get seedless apples.

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Exciting_Telephone65 t1_j6k4yb4 wrote

Does that mean it only creates clones of itself? And if it can do so, why would they keep the option of fertilisation around?

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Kewkky t1_j6k5ct0 wrote

More like it creates "placenta", even when unfertilized.

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Muroid t1_j6k7xs6 wrote

A bit like chickens laying unfertilized eggs.

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LakeStLouis t1_j6lfq87 wrote

And now I'm trying to figure out what an apple tree cloaca would look like.

Yeah, don't go down that path.

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platoprime t1_j6lfwcj wrote

Roots; the answer is roots.

Sorry for whatever you stumbled on.

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rlbond86 t1_j6khgee wrote

They don't create any offspring, just the fruit.

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dedicated-pedestrian t1_j6ksfsl wrote

I mean, we basically do clone apple trees to avoid any differentiation in the fruit. Not something the plant intends or plans around though.

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Suitable-Lake-2550 t1_j6lwfh8 wrote

All commercial bananas are clones from the same tree. Bred to be seedless.

Very susceptible to disease from lack of genetic diversity...

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atomfullerene t1_j6lvtff wrote

Seedless fruit trees are propagated as clones, but humans do the propagating. In the wild, they would be unable to reproduce. Seeded fruit tree varieties are also propagated as clones, though.

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DrChoopy t1_j6m83n5 wrote

In case of seedless varieties they do not create clones they spread “through cuttings”.

In nature there are plants that self-fertilise and create clones of themselves! They keep the option of cross pollination because plants don’t move and they need an individual able to do said fertilisation.

By creating clones you move in time… and space, so that cross pollination can happen.

*Except if you are peas!! In which case you are perfect the way that you are and you don’t need anybody else! Lol

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Its-me-Syke t1_j6n5qn0 wrote

Well, because the unfertilized fruits cannot create more trees therefore once the original trees die, the fruit would cease to exist

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Sir_wlkn_contrdikson t1_j6mn5tw wrote

Is this a anti fancy way of saying GMO. From your comment, it seems as though it just happens

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Spiritual_Jaguar4685 t1_j6msq9b wrote

Not a fancy way of saying GMO. Plants can do a lot of wacky genetic things totally naturally, but keep in mind pretty much any plant we eat has had thousands of years of selective breeding by humans. We've essentially trained all of our domesticated crops, naturally, to be a certain way.

Specially, plants can do some "odd" things when it comes to reproducing and creating fruits. For example, we're familiar with the concept of getting 1 set of genes from our mothers and 1 set from our fathers, they would call this "2N" genetics. In theory plants work the same way but getting 3N, 4N, 5N, etc plants is really common and doesn't hurt them as much as it would us. If you ever see a box of monstrous strawberries at the grocery they probably aren't GMO, they are just 3N or 4N strawberries (natural genetic freaks, not human engineered genetic freaks).

What I'm saying in the above is some plants, if the flowers don't get fertilized will just kill the flower and move on (like apples), other plants will keep the organ alive and produce what's called a "virgin fruit". Since no fertilization occurred the plant can't make normal seeds, but they'll probably still be there. They will just be super small or soft and you eat them without noticing them. Those are the seedless grapes and oranges and stuff per OP's prompt.

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