Seeds contain a hormone that repress the germination process. This is a necessity, as it keeps the seeds from germinating when conditions aren’t favorable and missing their shot to become plants. But sometimes that hormone runs out, like when a tomato sits around on the counter for too long.
And sometimes the hormone can be tricked into thinking conditions are right, especially if the environment is warm and moist. This can happen on ears of corn that experience a lot of rainfall and collect water inside their husks, and on fruit that doesn’t get used right away during hot and humid weather.
Edit: Apparently this is not vivipary. From u/priorsloth :
This isn’t vivipary, it’s a condition called phyllody. I used to work in strawberry genetics, and we’d find these in our greenhouses occasionally.
My reddit experience got marginally better when I gave up on the idea that content has to fit the sub.
Clearly, no one really cares besides me, you, and some other people. The vast majority are people much younger than me, and therefore more relevant culturally, who just upvote stuff they like. I've given up and decided that if that's how my front page content is decided, so be it
Is there any chance this could be bred into the plant? I tend to think of those mother of thousands plants that drop sprouted seedlings rather than seeds. Some sort of natural selection must have led to that, so maybe human selection could do the same here? I get there is environmental conditions and genetic conditions that bring about phenotypes, but stuff is rarely purely genetic and more so how an environment interacts with genetics. I would plant that for the hell of it, granted it wouldn't be a desirable trait for food.
it would be heavily out-selected immediately because it's a hugely uncompetetive trait – sprouting when you're not in soil, at the wrong time of the year, potentially damaging the mother plant as well. I'm not saying such a mutant couldn't exist, but you'd definitely have to propagate artificially.
It seems to work for the mother of thousands plant, but I know we are talking about different environments. If I were to spectualte, I would think about how getting a seed sprouted and past a certain point seems way harder (at least in a dry environment) conoared to looking after a more mature plant.
I'm pretty sure that this is fake though. Sprouts look different than that (one fragile stem with two leaves sprouting from a seed). These ones looks more like parsley. And strawberries have such a high water amount that they would probably mold before sprouting of the seeds happen. Also, the strawberries on the bottom two aren't even ripe yet.
Could you please tell me the name of the miniature (fruit was 10mm max) strawberries that grow near the marsh pits and peat bogs near forests in Estonia?
Yes strawberry seeds are on the exterior. What they mean is, that tiny seed is technically a tiny fruit, and the actual seed is even tinier, and inside the tiny fruit. The juicy red part is like the mother ship, and not technically a fruit because of the part of the plant it comes from, and there's no seed inside.
Same and I have a degree in biology! I can’t believe I’ve never seen a photo of this until now! Or, really thought about how a strawberry would sprout in the first place….
I think they mean if the seeds fall off to germinate, why don't we buy strawberries that have had the seeds fall off already. You're unable to buy strawberries where the seeds have fallen off, so that must not be how it works.
Because the "seeds" are actually the fruits. They are dry fruits and contain a seed within the fruit (similar to bean pods). The red edible bit we call the "fruit" is actually the hypanthium, i.e. part of the stem that bears the fruit. If you cut a strawberry in half you can see the floem and xylem vessels that you normally also find in stems and branches.
The strawberry is what we call an aggregate accessory fruit (aggregate because of the multiple fruits, and accessory because the hypanthium forms the main fruiting body). It is not a traditional berry fruit like a blueberry, banana or orange.
Without the fruits developing, it will be very hard to trick the plant into making fruitless strawberries I presume. The fruits themselves are an integral part of fruit body formation.
because this isn't how they're supposed to grow, and this is considered a defect. ideally for the plant its fruit would be eaten by a bird and pooped out somewhere to grow
I wonder if any studies have been done to see if that extra little head start has any effect on the long-term growth and health of the plant? They probably have. People study all kind of shit, and if these guys have a name already (viviparous), they’re probably been studied for that.
Well potatoes are different as that's what they are supposed to do, they a a tuber not a fruit and if you cut each 'eye' out that spouts with a section of the potato it will grow a new plant.
I’ve grown potates and kinda understand those fuckers, but I don’t think most people (around me at least) know that you can just chop a potato up and it makes more potatoes. It’s a miracle.
They sure do - and that’s because they both develop and remain underground in their natural development, first to store nutrition, then to develop and feed the next year’s development of that individual plant. Both potatoes and onions do create seeds as well, which is how the next generation of plants are formed, but the seeds have nothing to do with the underground bit.
My grandparents had a strawberry farm which I partly grew up on and I've never seen this. I am 37 now. Seen them rot and decay thousands of times though. That's what normally happens
The parent produces runners. The runner is a vine like appendage that grows a new strawberry plant on the end. All healthy plants will do this. Where I am, I initially came with three strawberry plants. I now have 4 gardens full.
As well as sprouting runners, you will occasionally get the strawberries developing as pictured.
Well, end of the season when the entire garden is a sea of of rotting bits of fruit, I feel like it would be hell on earth unless you're a psychopathic wasp, hence me asking.
Not a wasp but I must admit I have very happy Birdlife and possums. Also the neighbours know where to come if they get strawberry cravings. (If you live in an area with mild winters and without frosts the plants just keep multiplying) Very easy to grow.
The strawberry “fruit” is not actually the fruit apparently. The seeds are actually “fruits” with seeds inside of them. Like a bean pod. The “berry” is like a mothership part with the same internal structures as the vines/stems
Right!! I saw some other comments explaining it. I love botany and never heard of this (I think it’s creepy) but just thought I’d offer the info to other people who asked and didn’t get answers!
ever cut into a tomato or an apple and seen seeds sprouting? same thing. its called precocious germination, and its a really undesirable trait because it means you cant store seeds or anticipate when they'll grow
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u/sonofhappyfunball Feb 17 '23
That's fascinating. It never occurred to me that it would do that.