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Plants & Fungi Episode 4 · November 2, 2026

Is It Safe to Eat a Cloned Banana (or other seedless fruit)?

Plays from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode.

The big question

If seedless fruit has no seeds, how do farmers grow more of it? And is a cloned banana safe to eat?

Your banana is a clone, and so is every navel orange! Pip the puffin cracks a fruit mystery: if seedless fruit has no seeds, how do farmers grow more of it? Meet banana pups, the one Brazilian orange tree behind every navel orange, and the clever triploid trick behind seedless watermelons. Plus five big science words, a try-at-home plant clone, and a quiz.

Words to know

pollination

Say it: pol-ih-NAY-shun

Moving pollen from flower to flower, often by bees, so a flower can make seeds.

A bee carrying yellow pollen dust to the next flower.

clone

Say it: KLOHN

An exact copy of a living thing, with the very same DNA as its parent.

A banana plant grown from a pup is a clone of its parent.

grafting

Say it: GRAF-ting

Joining part of one plant onto another, so they grow together as one plant.

Every navel orange tree is grafted from one lucky tree.

triploid

Say it: TRIP-loyd

Having three sets of chromosomes. Three sets can’t split evenly in half, so a triploid plant can’t make working seeds.

Seedless watermelons are triploid.

parthenocarpy

Say it: par-thuh-no-CAR-pee

Growing fruit without making seeds at all.

Bananas and long, skinny cucumbers can do it.

Bonus words: pollen, DNA, chromosome, Cavendish

Quiz time!

Try it at home: Grow a plant clone

⏱ 5 minutes, then 1 to 2 weeks

You need

  • A grown-up
  • A mint or basil plant
  • Scissors (for the grown-up)
  • A glass of water
  • A sunny windowsill

Steps

  1. With a grown-up, snip a stem of mint or basil about as long as your finger.
  2. Pull off the lowest leaves so none of them sit in the water.
  3. Stand the stem in a glass of water on a sunny windowsill. Change the water every few days.
  4. In a week or two, look for little white roots. Then plant it in soil!

What’s going on? Your new plant is a clone: an exact copy of the plant you snipped it from, grown without any seeds.

⚠️ A grown-up should do the snipping.

Pip’s quick clips

Your banana is a CLONE! 🍌Opens YouTube