Title: Let’s get real about seedless watermelons: They have seeds — Quartz
Headings: Let’s get real about seedless watermelons: They have seeds
Let’s get real about seedless watermelons: They have seeds
Content: Watermelons, like all fruit, naturally produce seeds, but these days, the preferred type of watermelon is one that’s seedless. Last year, the seedless variety comprised 73% of all watermelon imported to the US, mainly from Mexico—a dramatic shift from just a decade ago. Seedless watermelons have defeated their seeded brethren. ​
The traditional Western watermelon sports a green rind, red flesh, and black seeds, which are slightly bitter under their hard shell. In China, another country serious about its watermelon, the seeds are commonly eaten raw or roasted, but Americans are more accustomed to spitting them out, hence the appeal of a watermelon that dispenses with the black seeds entirely. But seedless these watermelons are not. Bite into a so-called seedless watermelon, and you are sure to encounter the other, less-talked-about watermelon seed: white, soft, and translucent. They are the coatings of seeds that haven’t matured. In regular watermelons, about 5% of the seeds are likely to be these undeveloped white ones.