johnn48 t1_j6lghf1 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 3:55 AM

Reply to comment by AshFraxinusEps in ELI5: Why do so many fruits have seedless varieties but the apple and cherry do not? by JanaCinnamon

I ran across an interesting article which addressed just that point. A number of hypotheses were presented: 1) that the plant reproduced asexually by spreading its roots, 2) that the climate contributed to its demise, 3) that it grew in a narrow geographical area and was harvested to extinction. These are my narrow take of the article but it’s a definite must read.

AshFraxinusEps t1_j6mznsg wrote on January 31, 2023 at 2:12 PM

Interesting, and cheers. I did think we'd eventually rediscover it, as it was too widespread to be completely gone (although those are famous last words of conservationists throughout history)

From your points, while the link says it is slow growing, only .1 really would excuse it going completely extinct, as if it reproduced by asexual budding then any buds in the soil would have long-since died. But from the link, it does seem seed-based and therefore it'd be odd to be completely extinct