Lemons with Seeds–STILL (why?)

[huiray]

Panaderia Canadiense, on 09 January 2014 - 05:45 PM, said:

&roid, on 09 Jan 2014 - 5:27 PM, said:

 

Special K, on 09 Jan 2014 - 5:17 PM, said:

 

According to this website: http://www.yumsugar....e-Seeds-3281585, limes are parthenocarpic, meaning they are naturally seedless. Who knew?

 

 

cool, still not quite sure I understand though - the article says that parthenocarpic plants don't require the flowers to be pollenated to produce fruit... not sure why that means the fruit doesn't have seeds in it? How does a lime do the job of growing into another lime tree if it doesn't have seeds?

 

 

Fully parthenocarpic fruit require no pollination (this goes back to the bananas, the edible cultivars of which are pollen-sterile triploids).  This means that there are no seeds, because seeds are the result of pollination.  However, limes are not strictly parthenocarpic (they canproduce fruit with no pollination, but they can also do it with a pollen partner) so they're also not strictly seedless.  Here in Ecuador, they're generally seedier than lemons.

 

The other thing about limes, though, is that they require a pollen partner that's sufficiently genetically divergent from them in order to set seeds (meaning they can't self-pollinate) - and here at least, export quality limes are grown in plantations where every tree is a clone of a single mother.  That's not enough genetic difference for them to produce fruit sexually, so they produce fruit asexually instead.  In these cases, to answer your question, the trees aren't producing fruit to create another lime tree; instead they're fulfilling the imperative of not wasting flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Calamansi limes also have PLENTY of seeds.  :-)