Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCal2warm
Apparently there are two different levels of causes for seedlessness.
Hybridization between different species, and triploidy.
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Hybridization aided in increasing diversity, and triploidy tends towards more vigorous and larger plants, but neither are directly related to seedlessness/edibility.
Seedlessness is a condition, not a trait. A plant may or may not be seedless depending on if it was pollinated or not by viable pollen. You can't tell if a banana is incapable of making seeds unless it is properly pollinated. The fact that you don't finds seeds in a given edible banana fruit doesn't really mean much as to whether or not it has the capability to produce seeds under the right conditions.
One of the most notorious seed setters among edible bananas are many members of the Pisang Awak subgroup, which are hybrid derived triploids. If pollinated, they can make so many seeds that it can really get in the way of eating the fruit normally.