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.

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

Alas, teratoma peppers are not all that uncommon.