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Why Do Seedless Watermelons Still Have Seeds?

published Aug 5, 2016
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(Image credit: Africa Studios)

Pick up a seedless watermelon and you may feel like you solved all your watermelon problems. No black seeds to spit out, right? Well, yes, except for the fact that even though a seedless watermelon doesn’t contain black seeds, it still can be full of white, almost translucent seeds. So is the term “seedless” just a big, fat lie?

No, not exactly. First, it’s important to understand what seedless watermelons really are.

What’s a Seedless Watermelon?

Seedless watermelons are hybrid watermelons whose seeds are incapable of maturing into hard, black seeds, but that doesn’t mean they don’t try to produce seeds — the fruit does try, but because of this hybridization, the seeds can’t grow.

White Seeds = Immature Seeds

So those white seeds are really just hollow shells of seeds that haven’t matured. Yes, they are still seeds, but they are so soft and immature that they are completely edible and harmless — no spitting required.