If there was a High School Musical for fruit, watermelons would be the sporty types – the jocks. You know the typecasting: a bit thick, but very popular; heavyset but pretty harmless; rarely left out of parties – and they don’t spend too much time exercising their melons trying to figure out the meaning of life.
But if they ever did contemplate the science of their existence, they might discover they are quite the trick of nature – and, when it comes to their seedless variety, some very clever nurture.
Berry interesting
The classic weighty watermelon we all know and slurp in summer are from the Citrullus species, predominantly . In fact, botanically, a watermelon is a very big berry called a pepo, so defined because of its thick rind and numerous seeds in its watery flesh, rather than a big pit, or stone.
