Tag: the life cycle of plants

Parthenocarpy  is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules, which makes the fruit seedless. 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 but might be able to propagate by apomixis or by vegetative means. In some plants, pollination or another stimulation is required for parthenocarpy, termed stimulative parthenocarpy. Plants that do not require pollination or other stimulation to produce parthenocarpic fruit have vegetative parthenocarpy. Seedless cucumbers are an example of vegetative parthenocarpy, seedless watermelon is an example of stenospermocarpy.

Parthenogenesis may be defined as the development of female gamete into a new individual without fertilization. The megaspore mother cell undergoes the usual meiotic division to form haploid egg and embryo develops from the egg without fertilization.

Pathenocarpy is the development of fruit without fertilization. It helps in the production of seedless fruits. Examples include Vitis, grapes and so on.

Parthenocarpy is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules and therefore, the fruit is seedless. 

Parthenogenesis as per the definition is a process of asexual reproduction where the unfertilized egg develops into an embryo. It is very commonly seen in pants and lower vertebrates (wasps, rotifers and bees) but very uncommon in higher animals.

A) Potatoes are propagated by tubers. Tubers are the underground modification of stem which stores starch. It has buds on its surface which help in the growth of the new plant as these buds are meristematic in nature. The buds are also known as the eye. 

Banana develops without the fertilisation of ovule by a pollen. The unfertilised ovule is unable to produce seeds but fruit formation occurs. It is known as parthenocarpic fruit. Banana is a false berry because is develops from an inferior ovary which leads to formation of a soft and succulent pericarp.  

Parthenogenesis is the development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg or if a spermatozoa does penetrate the egg, there is no union of male and female pronuclei. It is a mode of asexual reproduction. On the basis of divison, it is of two types- apomictic parthenogenesis and automictic parthenogenesis.

Banana does not produce viable seeds and usually depends on asexual modes of reproduction. It thus, commonly produces fruits without any seeds and are called parthenocarpic. Naturally, mango lemon and apple donot produce parthenocarpic fruits.