parthenocarpy
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Bananas are parthenocarps, the edible banana is the fruit of a sterile hybrid. The banana plant grows as a series of suckers from a rhizome. Each stem gradually droops downwards and produces at its tip the male flowers, which are sterile. The female flowers, which produce the edible fruit without fertilization, are found further along the stem. After a stem has produced a crop of fruit, it dies and is replaced by a new stem from a bud further along the rhizome. Their seedless fruit is eaten by their bat pollinators, as well as by many other animals. A banana plant may live for over 60 years.
In botany, the formation of fruits without seeds. This phenomenon, of no obvious benefit to the plant, occurs naturally in some plants, such as bananas. It can also be induced in some fruit crops, either by breeding or by applying certain plant hormones.
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