The word cultivar is an abbreviation of the words cultivated variety and refers to any variety of plants that have been selectively bred or adapted by humans. Crop plants in particular, are bred for specific characteristics (note: selective breeding just means that two parent plants were bred together normally, and not GMO).
It is normal horticultural practice to refer to a specific plant cultivar that is genetically identical to it's parent by placing it in single 'quotation marks' to portray the fact that it is a clone of it's parent (aka: true to type). Identical plants or clones can be made via cuttings, air-layering or tissue culture). In fact, you've probably cloned a plant yourself before!
Plant clones can occur naturally in nature, because plants can reproduce both asexually and sexually (ie: by seed). When plants reproduce by seed, the "child" plant is not genetically identical and will exhibit different characteristics to it's parent.
In some crop species only a few wild seedlings were edible (for instance, eating 10 wild almonds can kill a man) and chance characteristics/mutations allowed it to become safe for human consumption. The odds of a chance seedling being a productive, edible and economically-viable seedling are astronomically slim (1 in 80 000), so it makes sense that we use proven cultivars- especially when you consider that those seedlings had to grow for a minimum of 5 years, before it can be tested for taste, storage qualities, looks, vigour, resistance to bruising, size etc.
So the next time you juice a 'Eureka' lemon, remember that it's a cutting of a cutting of a cutting that dates back all the way to a chance seedling from California back in 1858. And that 'Granny Smith'? It's believed that 150 years ago an orchardist named Maria Ann Smith discarded the pips of a French Crab-apple into her compost pit which grew into this much-loved variety. Pretty much every fruit you've ever come across in a store has a history steeped in a bit of urban legend (for those older varieties at least).
And yes, that seedless grape or watermelon you love? It's a cutting of a cultivar that didn't develop seeds.
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