True or false: there are male and female bell peppers
Did you know that a bell pepper can be male or female? That story is doing the rounds online. Is it true? And what is the difference between a male and a female bell pepper?
Various websites explain it like this: bell peppers have bumps on the bottom. If you see three bumps, you have a male bell pepper. It contains fewer seeds, so it is easy to clean. Four bumps? That’s a female, which contains more seeds, but they also taste sweeter. A little more work to cut them neatly, but delicious to eat as they are. At least, that’s the story…
Romance in the vegetable drawer
Because why would a fruit be male or female? What happens in the vegetable drawer or fruit bowl when you’re not around? Are there more fruits and vegetables that can be distinguished as male and female, and what is the difference? A brief search turns up even more stories about male fruits and female vegetables. Apparently, male eggplant is much less bitter than female eggplant, while female watermelons are sweeter than their brothers.
No, no, no female bell peppers
P8, the trade association for bell pepper growers, is almost falling off its chair in amazement when we ask them about these male and female bell peppers. ‘No, this is an urban myth,’ says the spokesperson. Just to be sure, he puts the bell pepper-bump story to experts at Wageningen University, but they shake their heads too: male or female bell peppers do not exist. A bell pepper is male and female at the same time, P8 explains. ‘Bell pepper flowers can pollinate themselves, so the pollen, the male element, and the pistil, the female part of the plant, are in the same flower. Bumblebees can help them in greenhouses, but they don’t have to fly from plant to plant. And the bell pepper itself is therefore neither male nor female.’
Three or four bumps
So what about those bumps? Experts call them ‘three-lobed’ and ‘four-lobed’ bell peppers. ‘Actually, all bell peppers should have four lobes; with a three-lobed bell pepper, with three bumps, a different fruit set has occurred.’ Difference in taste? The spokesperson says he has never noticed one. ‘In Great Britain, there is high demand for four-lobed bell peppers, but that has nothing to do with the taste. It’s because people there often eat stuffed bell peppers from the oven, and a bell pepper with four bumps stays upright better.’
