Bell Pepper Teratoma

The other night I was fixing up some fajitas for dinner. Yum. While cutting up a red bell pepper for my meal, what to my wondrous eyes did appear? A red pepper teratoma! A capsicum styled fetus in fetu, if you will. A pepper within a pepper. According to this (fairly well referenced) Wikipedia article explains what fetus in fetu is:

Fetus in fetu (or fœtus in fœtu) is a developmental abnormality: a mass of tissue inside the body that more or less resembles a fetus. There are two theories of origin concerning fetus in fetu. One theory is that the mass begins as a normal fetus but becomes enveloped inside its twin. The other theory is that the mass is a highly developed teratoma. Fetus in fetu is estimated to occur in 1 in 500,000 live births.

It’s not quite as exciting as the foot found in the boys brain down in Colorado Springs (warning: very graphic photo [photo credit to the Denver Post]. DO NOT click if you are at all squeamish). But I was still pretty thrilled with my little discovery. My mature, and fully ripened, red pepper was carrying it’s own underdeveloped green pepper twin inside it. Of course I took pictures.

Red Pepper Teratoma (Inside)

And here is a picture of the with the fetus extracted.

Red Pepper Teratoma (Extracted)

Alas, teratoma peppers are not all that uncommon.

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6 thoughts on “Bell Pepper Teratoma”

  1. This is cool, My wife found a small green bell pepper inside an orange bell pepper tonight. First thing I thought was Fetus In Fetu as well. Pretty dang cool, all the bell peppers I’ve seen in my life and this is the first and likely ONLY one I’ll ever see in my life!

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