# Inside Bell Peppers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-bell-peppers/101545>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-bell-peppers/101545 "2002-04-03T03:53:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-bell-peppers/101545/1 "2002-04-03T03:53:52Z")

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What are those tumor like baby bell pepper thingies that grow inside? They look kinda like bps, they smell like bps, they taste like bps, but are they really the love children of a pepper and a gourd?

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**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 3, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-bell-peppers/101545/2 "2002-04-03T10:48:19Z")

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I think they are just mini fruits that are there as a benign result (or side-effect) of having selected the mutations of _Capsicum Annuum_ in order to produce large sweet fruits; I’ve never seen them inside any kind of chillies, even though they are botanically almost the same. We could probably elimiate them by making further selections but there seems little point.

I suppose they are analogous to the mini-segments at the end of a navel orange or the [‘hose-in-hose’](http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/daylily/hpgal011525263884.jpg) formation that occurs in many ornamental flowers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inside-bell-peppers/101545/3 "2002-04-03T14:03:42Z")

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Thanks, what a relief.  
I was checking the basement for pods.