Uh, What the Hell Is Happening with This Red Bell Pepper?

Mutant bell peppers growing their own mini bell peppers are coming to take over our world! Or, at least given us something weird to stare at on Reddit on Monday morning and wonder what the heck is going on with it.

User Mani-Hon posted a photo of the inside of a very strange red bell pepper, on the plantclinic forum, asking “Can someone please explain what I found in this pepper?” The inside of the pepper seems to be filled with tiny, bulbous bits. “Is it just more pepper? Is it a mutant?”

The answer to both of those appears to be yes, in fact, it is both more pepper and it is a mutant. Some people made jokes — that the poster had interrupted a pepper orgy, it’s pepperception. Maybe it’s pepper cancer or pepper tumors, or “rare fruit salad pepper.” Some people call it treats for the cook or a little gremlin. But Plantclinic’s mission is “If you’re wondering “what’s wrong with my plant?”, we will help you diagnose and treat it!” and every post has to have a photo of a sick plant and a question about what is wrong with that plant. So they’re very serious about strange plants.

While those plant savvy users and pepper nerds tossed around various theories on what exactly it was, discussing internal proliferation (that it made babies inside of itself) and vivipary (seeds germinating while still inside the fruit because of stress), other users also shot down many of those theories, giving explanations for their dissent.

And despite the wealth of plant knowledge and serious scientific discussion about what is going on with the pepper, the main diagnosis is just that it’s a weird, harmless defect that won’t make any difference in the grand scheme of things. But it sure is cool to look at!

Reader: Do you have any ideas about what is happening inside this pepper?