The document discusses parthenocarpy, which is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization. Some key points are: 1) Parthenocarpy allows for seedless fruits and occurs naturally in some plants like bananas, tomatoes, and citrus fruits. It can also be induced artificially by applying plant growth hormones. 2) Seedlessness is a desirable trait for some fruits like pineapple, banana, and grapefruit that have hard seeds. Parthenocarpy also benefits plants that are difficult to pollinate. 3) Horticulturists have selectively bred parthenocarpic varieties of many plants like figs, eggplants, and breadfruit to aid cultivation and production

2. In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy (literally
meaning virgin fruit) is the natural or artificially
induced production of fruit without fertilization of
ovules.The fruit is therefore seedless.
Ex: Banana, Tomato,Lemon,Watermelon, Grapes,
Cucumber etc
Stenospermocarpy may also produce apparently
seedless fruit, but the seeds are actually aborted
while still small.
Parthenocarpy (or stenospermocarpy) occasionally
occurs as a mutation in nature; if it affects every
flower, the plant can no longer sexually reproduce
but might be able to propagate by vegetative means.

3. The process where fruits are formed in a flower which
hasn't gone through the process of fertilization is called
'Parthenocarpy'.
This formation of the fruit can happen naturally or
artificially. Artificially, farmers spray growth
hormone, called Auxins, that enables the growth of the
fruit. A fruit that is developed in this manner is called a
parthenocarpic fruit. The ability to produce seedless
fruit when pollination is unsuccessful may be an
advantage to a plant because it provides food for the
plant’s seed dispersers. Without a fruit crop, the seed
dispersing animals may starve or migrate.

4. In some plants, pollination or other stimulation is required for
parthenocarpy. This is termed stimulative parthenocarpy.
Plants that do not require pollination or other stimulation to
produce parthenocarpic fruit have vegetative parthenocarpy.
Cucumber is an example of vegetative parthenocarpy, seedless
watermelon is an example of stenospermocarpy.
Plants moved from one area of the world to an
other may not always be accompanied by their pollinating
partner and the lack of pollinators has spurred human
cultivation of parthenocarpic varieties.
Some parthenocarpic varieties have been developed as
genetically modified organisms.

5. COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE
Seedlessness is seen as a desirable trait in edible
fruit with hard seeds such as pineapple, banana,
orange and grapefruit. Parthenocarpy is also
desirable in fruit crops that may be difficult to
pollinate or fertilize, such as tomato and summer
squash. In dioecious species, such as persimmon,
parthenocarpy increases fruit production
because staminate trees do not need to be
planted to provide pollen.

6. CONTD.
Parthenocarpy is undesirable in nut crops, such as
pistachio, where the seed is the edible part. Horticulturists
have selected and propagated parthenocarpic cultivars
of many plants, including fig, cactus pear (Opuntia),
breadfruit and eggplant. Some plants, such as pineapple,
produce seedless fruits when a single cultivar is grown
because they are self-infertile. Some cucumbers produce
seedless fruit if pollinators are excluded.
Strange as it seems, seedless watermelon plants are grown
from seeds.
The seeds are produced by crossing a diploid parent(2n) with
a tetraploid parent to produce triploid seeds (3n)

7. CONTD.
When sprayed on flowers, any of the plant hormones
gibberellin, auxin and cytokinin can often stimulate the
development of parthenocarpic fruit. This is termed
artificial parthenocarpy.
Plant hormones are seldom used commercially to
produce parthenocarpic fruit.
Home gardeners sometimes spray their tomatoes with
an auxin to assure fruit production.
Some parthenocarpic cultivars are of ancient origin.
The
oldest known cultivated plant is a parthenocarpic fig
first grown at least 11,200 years ago.
In some climates, normally seeded pear cultivars will
produce mainly seedless fruit due to lack of
pollination.

8. Parthenocarpic Brinjal & Squash

9. Parthenocarpic Cucumber

10. Seedless Watermelon