# Holy \*\*\*\*! A TREE in his LUNG? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769 "2009-04-20T20:06:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/1 "2009-04-20T20:06:19Z")
When you were little, were you afraid to eat watermelon seeds because you thought they’d sprout in your stomach? Well, it turns out that if you inhale trees you get the same results. [Linky](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5152953/Surgeons-find-fir-tree-growing-inside-patients-lung.html) I want to know what they did with the sapling after they removed it. If I were that man, I’d want to plant it in my backyard. “See, kids? That’s the tree that grew in Grandpa’s lungs. Now, anyone want some watermelon seeds?” ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/2 "2009-04-20T20:07:50Z")
I’m waiting for the independent verification. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/3 "2009-04-20T20:10:55Z")
Aren’t fir seeds pretty big, like the size of a peanut? It’s hard to imagine inhaling one. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/4 "2009-04-20T20:44:16Z")
The report I heard cast some pretty harsh doubt on this. IIRC, a seed would need a fairly narrow band of the right pH, light, moisture, and temperature to germinate. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/5 "2009-04-20T20:45:01Z")
Didn’t Snopes bust this? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/6 "2009-04-20T20:49:54Z")
Ok, so Snopes may be investigating? Here is a [Telegraph story](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5152953/Surgeons-find-fir-tree-growing-inside-patients-lung.html), not sure how credible they are. They say the surgeon’s story has not been independently verified. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/7 "2009-04-20T21:37:30Z")
> [@Zabali\_Clawbane](#): > > Didn’t Snopes bust this? :dubious: I found this story in the Daily Snopes section. Admittably, they don’t guarantee the veracity of DS stories. But I didn’t see it in their regular Urban Legend pages. It may not be true. I posted the story for the :eek: factor. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/8 "2009-04-20T22:23:29Z")
See [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=514057) previous thread on the same story. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/9 "2009-04-20T22:55:52Z")
There was a thread either here or Fark, ( I think here) where someone had a kid that had chronic sinus issues. Allergists and a variety of doctors were consulted. Over a period of time, someone got the bright idea to Xray/ or Cat scan the head and found out that the child ( when smaller) had shoved bean seeds up their nose and _had sprouted_, hence the sinus issues. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/10 "2009-04-20T23:18:44Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > There was a thread either here or Fark, ( I think here) where someone had a kid that had chronic sinus issues. > > Allergists and a variety of doctors were consulted. Over a period of time, someone got the bright idea to Xray/ or Cat scan the head and found out that the child ( when smaller) had shoved bean seeds up their nose and _had sprouted_, hence the sinus issues. A former housemate of mine told me a cousin of hers had done just that–shoved a bean up his nose and left it until it sprouted. The case, she said, ended up in a medical paper, complete with an x-ray of the sprout in situ and photos of the sprout following its surgical removal. She also said the same cousin once fractured his skull by banging his head on the concrete floor of a supermarket because his mother wouldn’t buy him a cookie. When I asked if he survived his childhood, she said, “Oh, yeah. He’s a pediatrician now.” No, I don’t have verification of any of this, but I did find her generally reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/11 "2009-04-20T23:37:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > See [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=514057) previous thread on the same story. Okay, I hadn’t seen that. I guess I must have been scanning the titles, and “Russian patient has an operation” didn’t look interesting enough to open. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/12 "2009-04-21T01:12:51Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Aren’t fir seeds pretty big, like the size of a peanut? It’s hard to imagine inhaling one. (veracity or otherwise of this story notwithstanding) Depends on the species - some conifer seeds are quite small - smaller than, say, a tomato pip. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/13 "2009-04-21T02:46:14Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > The report I heard cast some pretty harsh doubt on this. IIRC, a seed would need a fairly narrow band of the right pH, light, moisture, and temperature to germinate. I think the light has to be greater than zero, which would be the problem in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/14 "2009-04-21T15:23:44Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I think the light has to be greater than zero, which would be the problem in this case. Doesn’t most [germination](http://science.jrank.org/pages/3036/Germination.html)occur underground, and therefore in the absence of light? > [@](#): > > Germination is the process by which a seed begins its development into a mature plant. Germination begins with an increase of metabolic activity within the seed. The first visible sign of germination in angiosperms (flowering plants) is generally an enlargement of the seed, due to intake of water from the environment. The seed’s covering may wrinkle and crack at this time. Soon afterward, the embryonic root (called the radicle) emerges from the seed and begins to grow down into the soil. At about this time the shoot (plumule) also emerges, and grows upward out of the soil. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/15 "2009-04-21T21:16:03Z")
Germination doesn’t necessarily require light, for all species (and some plants will only germinate initially in the dark) - but plant growth, for green plants, pretty much _does_ require light. So it’s a pretty tall tale, unless this particular specimen happened to do something pretty damn weirdly and uncharacteristically parasitic, like hacking into the guy’s bloodstream and extracting sugars directly, bypassing its need to synthesise them. But that idea is pretty far out on a limb… ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/16 "2009-04-21T22:21:58Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Doesn’t most [germination](http://science.jrank.org/pages/3036/Germination.html)occur underground, and therefore in the absence of light? No. Typical seed-dispersal mechanisms result in the seed(s) being deposited on the ground surface; rain and other weather my result in covering them with some soil or ground litter but the majority of seeds in the wild germinate within a few millimeters of the surface. Now, I don’t know if most or even any seeds actually _require_ light to sprout, but it is available to them. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/17 "2009-04-21T22:25:47Z")
I have my doubts. It’s from Russia, which is a source for a lot of these “too strange to be true” type of stories. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/18 "2009-04-21T22:43:08Z")
[This](http://tomclothier.hort.net/page10.html) seed germination guide recommends darkness for some species of fir, but not for spruce. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/19 "2009-04-22T00:22:07Z")
Getting a seed to germinate in a weird place is one thing. “Grow into a tree/sapling” in the human body smacks of Weekly World News made-up bullcrap. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769/20 "2009-04-22T01:14:37Z")
The video looks like a cutting from a spruce tree. I couldnt’ see any type of root structure in the vid. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-a-tree-in-his-lung/493769.md?page=2)