Q.Take out some seeds of orange and squeeze them. Observe the many embryos of different sizes and shapes from each seed. Count the number of embryos in each seed. What would be the genetic nature of apomictic embryos? Can they be called clones?

Let’s start with something you already know: a fruit is the ripened ovary of a flower. Normally, for that ovary to swell into a fruit, the flower must first be pollinated — pollen lands on the stigma, a pollen tube grows down, and fertilisation happens. Seeds then develop inside the fruit. That’s the usual sequence.

Now imagine a fruit that forms without any of that. No pollination, no fertilisation, no seeds. That’s parthenocarpy — from Greek parthenos (virgin) and karpos (fruit). The fruit develops from the ovary all by itself, as if it skipped the entire reproductive step.

How is that induced? In nature, some plants do it spontaneously — bananas, grapes, oranges, cucumbers. But commercially, farmers and horticulturists often induce parthenocarpy artificially. The mechanism is simple in principle: you trick the ovary into thinking it has been pollinated and fertilised.

The key is a group of plant hormones called auxins and gibberellins. When pollen lands on a stigma, it triggers a surge of these hormones in the ovary, which makes it grow. If you spray the flower with synthetic auxins (like 2,4-D or NAA) or gibberellins (like GA₃) at the right time, the ovary gets the same chemical signal — and starts swelling into a fruit, even though no fertilisation occurred.

Why does this matter? Two big reasons:

• Seedless fruits — consumers prefer seedless watermelons, grapes, cucumbers. Parthenocarpy gives you that without any seeds to remove.
• Reliable yield — if weather or lack of pollinators prevents pollination, the crop can still set fruit. This is especially useful in greenhouses or during rainy seasons when bees are inactive.

What NCERT says: In the Class 12 Biology textbook (Chapter 2, Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants), parthenocarpy is defined as the development of fruit without fertilisation. The textbook mentions that it can be induced by applying growth hormones like auxins, and that such fruits are seedless. Examples given: banana, grapes, cucumber. …