03 September 2011

Pepper inside a pepper

Baby Bell pepper, Capsicum annuum which was found inside an adult pepper. It is unknown what causes smaller peppers to develop inside a fully grown fruit, a rare occurrence.
Photo and text credit MBZ1, via Fresh Photons.

9 comments:

  1. If you grow, cut, and eat a lot of peppers you'll find it's not that uncommon. It's even common on Dutch hydro grown red bells.

    What's uncommon is that the conjoined twin is so large. Conjoined peppers are usually much smaller.

    I wonder whether conjoined peppers are genetically identical or are the result of double fertilizations by pollen grains. DNA testing might resolve this question.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Bacopa.

    I like bell peppers and I eat a lot of them, raw. This is very common. So common that I didn't even think about it until I read this blog post.

    Up to now, I simply accepted that this happens a lot with bell peppers and that's that.

    Not that I will start challenging bell peppers now, mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see this a lot as well. I eat them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ditto Richard and Bacopa. Thought this was pretty common.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is indeed not uncommon if you grow them yourself. Maybe 10% of the ones I grew last year were double peppers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was a chef for about 25 years. I wouldn't say it was common, but it was not uncommon either. Seems like every few bushels you would run into one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Neat picture! I found a cute little green pepper inside of a red pepper just the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't even like bell peppers and I'd seen this plenty of times as a kid in the kitchen with my mother.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bushels? I find it regularly.

    ReplyDelete