 I Hate To Throw Cold Water On All This Fun, But.....
The only part of a vegetable plant that has gender characteristics is the flower.
Certainly the fruit doesn't. And, if it did, they would all be female because the fruit is merely the fertilized ovum.
Eggplant, like most of its cousins (tomatoes, peppers, etc.) has what are known as perfect flowers. That means they have both male and female sexual organs in the same bloom (and, yes Virginia, they can---and do--fertilize themselves. That's one of the methods we use to assure seed purity).
So, the idea that there are male and female eggplants is just more of Alton Brown's sillyness. |