Parthenocarpy
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In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy (literally meaning virgin fruit) is the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules. The fruit is therefore seedless. Parthenocarpy occasionally occurs as a mutation in nature, but it is a defect, as the plant can no longer sexually reproduce, but may propagate by asexual means. For commercial fruit, seedlessness can be a very desirable property and horticulturists have selected and artificially propagated parthenocarpic varieties of many plants, including citrus, banana, cucumber, and eggplant.
Plants moved from one area of the world to another may not always be accompanied by their pollinating partner and in lack of pollinators has spurred human cultivation of parthenocarpic varieties. Some parthenocarpic varieties have been developed as genetically modified organisms.