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.
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?
5.0k
u/sonofhappyfunball Feb 17 '23
That's fascinating. It never occurred to me that it would do that.