# Weird Growth in Banana **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164 "2010-12-23T06:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/1 "2010-12-23T06:16:37Z")
Today I peeled a banana that looked completely normal in the peel, but peeling it revealed a dark, mottled, spotty “bruise” running along one side about half the length of the banana starting from the non-stem end. I tried to gouge out the “bruise” with my fingers, but it turned out to be not a bruise but rather a fibrous, inedible growth that separated from the normal part of the banana in a coherent mass. There was a distinct, smooth boundary between the growth and the rest of the banana. The rest of the banana looked and tasted completely normal. What is it? Banana cancer? An undeveloped twin? It may be significant that of the three bananas I’ve peeled out of the bunch, all three had the growth, although the growths vary in size. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/2 "2010-12-23T06:27:05Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > T\ The rest of the banana looked and _ **tasted** _ completely normal. Emphasis added by me. You ate the bananna? YOU ATE _THE BANANNA_? Dude, you are doomed. Doomed, I tell you. Hie thee to the ER, it will start growing any second. The sooner it is uprooted the better. I don’t really know, but it sounds cool. Got any pictures? ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/3 "2010-12-23T06:43:57Z")
I’m pretty sure it was a [banana worm](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13261422&postcount=2). ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/4 "2010-12-23T13:48:27Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m pretty sure it was a [banana worm](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13261422&postcount=2). That was my thought as well. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/5 "2010-12-23T14:18:18Z")
Interestingly, I think that the banana worm itself is indistuishable from the banana itself. The dark hard spot is just part of it’s phallus. I suppose it could be some type of odd growth, but how likely is that. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/6 "2010-12-23T14:53:12Z")
Did it look like this? [http://www.bspp.org.uk/publications/new-disease-reports/jan2007/2007-01.asp](http://www.bspp.org.uk/publications/new-disease-reports/jan2007/2007-01.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/7 "2010-12-23T16:58:01Z")
A similar thread from my own younger days when I was less responsible with my thread titles: [Diagnose my Hairy Banana](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6877828&highlight=%22hairy+banana%22#post6877828) ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/8 "2010-12-23T17:25:49Z")
I could be misunderstanding it but bananas of the same variety are genetically identical [http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana](http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana). You may be seeing the first signs of a banana apocalypse. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/9 "2010-12-23T21:25:21Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Today I peeled a banana that looked completely normal in the peel, but peeling it revealed a dark, mottled, spotty “bruise” running along one side about half the length of the banana starting from the non-stem end. I tried to gouge out the “bruise” with my fingers, but it turned out to be not a bruise but rather a fibrous, inedible growth that separated from the normal part of the banana in a coherent mass. There was a distinct, smooth boundary between the growth and the rest of the banana. The rest of the banana looked and tasted completely normal. Whatever you do, _don’t_ read the Stephen King story about the guy who drank the bad beer. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-growth-in-banana/565164/10 "2010-12-24T00:29:14Z")
A day after eating the bananas I feel fine and no Alien-like being has burst forth from my viscera, showering screaming onlookers with gore as I writhe in agony. I must add that although I described the growth as inedible, I did not actually try to eat it. For all I know it could be the next Iron Chef ingredient, or food craze like huitlacoche.