56 Viviparous Plants That Look Both Gruesome And Fascinating
If you've ever eaten a freshly grown tomato from a local farmers market, you know how anomalous and quirky natural plants can look. But this time, we’re taking the oddness of Mother Nature to a whole new level.
Please meet the aliens of the plant kingdom that resemble little creatures you’d see in Ridley Scott’s movie. This is due to a condition known as vivipary, which basically, and now you may hold tight, refers to “live birth” in Latin. And it means precisely what it sounds like—it’s when the seeds start germinating while still attached to the mother plant.
So let’s dive into the fascinating world of vivipary in plants as compiled by Bored Panda, so we all know what gardeners' nightmares are made of, and the next time you eat your lovely salad, don't take it for granted.
#1 This Strawberry's Seeds Started Sprouting While It Was Still On The Plant
Image credits: reddit.com
#2 Friend Of Mine Found An Apple With An Apple Tree Growing Out Of It
Image credits: Mattman91
#3 This Tomato Sprouting Its Seeds
Image credits: reddit.com
In order to find out more about this unusual phenomenon, Bored Panda spoke to David Lifton, a gardener and blogger who runs the Instagram account “Young Ground Grows.” David said that vivipary is pretty common sight for him because he has been growing his own produce on his allotment garden for eight years.
David explained that vivipary is a condition whereby the seeds of a fruit begin to sprout from inside the fruit. “Every seed contains growth hormones that are programmed to activate when the conditions are right (heat, light, humidity). And they normally do this once the fruit has dropped and has rotted away in the soil.”
However, these growth hormones can be tricked to grow prematurely in situations where fruits are left out in hot or humid weather.
#4 Sprouting Strawberries? How Can I Fix This?
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#5 Noticed Something That Looked Like A Worm In My Apple. Upon Further Inspection, It Turned Out To Be The Seeds Inside Sprouting
Image credits: 5 years ago
#6 Forgot About This Tomato While On Vacation And It Sprouted
Image credits: reddit.com
David also said that you can eat vivipary fruits, but you need “to cut around the sprouted seeds and check there's no softness on the skin, bad odor, or signs of mold, as this would indicate the fruit is off.”
Even though vivipary-affected fruits and veggies look odd, to say the least, it turns out the condition is more common than we think. “If you grow your own pumpkins and squash and store them away for a few months, when you come to open them up, you may find the seeds have begun to sprout!”
Plus, “if you live in the western hemisphere, you'll most likely find vivipary in supermarket peppers,” David said.
#7 The Seeds In My Butternut Squash Were Sprouting On The Inside
Image credits: reddit.com
#8 The Seeds In This Tomato Started Sprouting
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#9 Live Birth
Image credits: downagardenpath
Other places where you can find vivipary fruits is near the equator, “where length of day and temperatures stay consistent.” Here, David explained that “vivipary may be a far more common sight in lots of fruits,” not just sprouting tomatoes.
#10 Mutant! My Sunflower Has Had An Unconventional Baby
Image credits: mrdamcgowan
#11 My Grapefruit Started Sprouting Inside Itself
Image credits: Rpark888
#12 My Tomato's Seeds Have Started To Sprout From The Inside
Image credits: reddit.com
#13 This Strawberries Seeds Have Started Sprouting
Image credits: reddit.com
#14 Vivipary
Image credits: raw.veganna
#15 Mango Pit Began To Grow Into A Tree, While Still Inside The Mango (Full Branch Visible)
Image credits: reddit.com
#16 A Tomato Growing More Tomatoes.
Image credits: reddit.com
#17 I Find These Wonders Of Nature Often On My Plate
Just as I was about to gobble up these pomegranate seeds I saw some green sticking to one of the seeds and thought it could be the coriander greens I was handling the same time I peeled the pomegranate. But it turned out to be a sprouting seed, a fine example of viviparous behaviour. I have experienced in earlier in papaya, many citrus fruits, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelon and even mangoes
Image credits: sangeetaamkhanna
#18 Found A Sprouting Seed In My Tangerine
Image credits: Morgeous
#19 An Avocado Tree Was Starting To Grow Inside My Avocado
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#20 Nature Is Amazing
Image credits: stephenthegardener
#21 Plants Are Amazing. Also Corn Is Bae
Image credits: theodutree
#22 Vivipary Is When Seeds Germinate While Still Attached To The Parent Plant - As With This Pepper. Plants Are So Cool!
Image credits: isu_hort
#23 Vivipary (Premature Germination) Of Corn Kernels. This Condition Is Most Likely To Occur When Kernels Have Dried Down To 20% Moisture Or Less And Are Then Rewetted By Rains
Image credits: agricpedia.id
#24 Thanks, I Hate Tomato On Steroids
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#25 This Discarded Watermelon That Sprouted
Image credits: ilikebeepboops
#26 This Orange Seed Sprouted Inside An Orange
Image credits: machupichu412
#27 This Bell Pepper Has Other Bell Peppers Growing Inside Of It
Image credits: xFly1ngPengu1nx
#28 Sprouted Corn
Image credits: ifsisweetcorn
#29 I’ll Pass On Eating This Prego Tomato
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#30 Pregnant Apple! Apple Tree Growing Inside The Apple!
Image credits: EdvrdMunch
#31 Tomato Sprouts Growing Inside The Tomato
Image credits: reddit.com
#32 Seeds That Germinate Inside The Fruit And Today I Find This
Image credits: elhuertodenane
#33 I May Have Left This Butternut Squash In The Field Too Long
Image credits: littlexlittlefarm
#34 A Cute Mutated Sunflower
Image credits: babisavoini
#35 Here We Have An Example Of Vivipary, When The Embryo Develops While Still "In Fruit"
Image credits: bello_plantae
#36 I Just Opened This Butternut Squash And Found This Amazing Phenomena That I Never Thought I Would Ever See
Image credits: nightpeony
#37 How Vivipary Is Happened In The Given Picture Of Mangifera Indica, Showing Emerges Of Seedling After Germination While The Fruit Still Attached With Mother Plant Identify This Abonormality......
Image credits: avanthibotanytalks
#38 Why Does This Eggplant Look So Unusual?
Image credits: gardeningaustralia
#39 The Wonders Of Plant Vivipary
Image credits: fluttersnflourishes
#40 The Term For This Is Vivipary And It Might Very Well Be Your Next Phobia
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#41 Giving Live Birth
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#42 Never Seen A Mango Sprout Like This Before. It's Still Semi-Green Too
Image credits: selkiedreams
#43 Cut Open A Papaya Today And Found The Seeds Germinated From The Inside. Who Knew Papaya Had A Viviparous Nature?
Image credits: pasdesnousse
#44 You Can Imagine My Surprise When I Cut Into
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#45 I’m Trying To Fight The Urge To Grow These Little Guys Out
Image credits: aldebaran_farm
#46 Never Seen A Spaghetti Squash So Sprouty!
Image credits: nutrapothica
#47 Vivipary ... Groundnut
Image credits: kumaraguru_asokan
#48 In This Episode Of Nature-Is-Weird, Vivipary: Corn Kernels
Image credits: abecedary
#49 We Forgot About Our Bag Of Potatoes And They Sprouted... A Lot
Image credits: weirdpanorama
#50 Ð umpkin Seeds Started To Sprout From The Inside
Image credits: Proclomacia
#51 I Picked Some Lemons Off My Tree And The Seeds Had Begun Sprouting Inside The Lemons
Image credits: queott
#52 Cut A Lemon From My Yard In Half To Find The Seeds Already Sprouting
Image credits: everydayidiealittle
#53 The Seeds Of This Strawberry Are Beginning To Sprout
Image credits: reddit.com
#54 This Strawberry Seeds Started To Grow
Image credits: reddit
#55 Had A Little Stroll Around The Garden This Morning And Spotted This!
Image credits: bristolgardenista
#56 A Seed In My Grapefruit Sprouted
Image credits: overweightduck
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