Fact check: Bell peppers do not have a gender; false claim based on number of lobes is a myth

The claim: The gender of bell peppers can be determined by the number of bumps

A March 29 Facebook post brought back a myth about the gender of bell peppers.

"Flip the bell peppers over to check their gender. The ones with 4 bumps are females and those with three bumps are males. The female peppers are full of seeds, but sweeter and better for raw eating and the males are better for cooking. I didn't know this."

The post has more than 300 shares and comments such as "Wow learn something new all the time." USA TODAY reached out the user for a comment.

Over the last couple of years this claim has been found on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

There are tweets that date as far back as 2013 where users claim bell peppers have a gender and that it can be determined by the number of lobes, or bumps, that they have.

According to a Google Trends search, the phrase "bell pepper gender" generated the highest peaks of interest in September 2015, October 2016 and February 2018.

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The number of bumps does not indicate gender

In 2015, Snopes debunked the claim and cited David Karp, a pomologist at University of California Riverside, who said: “The supposition that there are male and female peppers is a common canard, but untrue. Peppers grow from flowers that have both male and female parts. The fruits do not have a gender.”

Bell pepper plants are known as "perfect flowers" because they contain a calyx, corolla and both male and female reproductive parts, according to The Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nuts. So while bell pepper flowers have both male and female parts, the bell peppers, which are the fruits of the plant, do not.

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences reported on the claim in 2019 in Chow Line, a service provided by the college and its outreach and research arms.

Tracy Turner, the technical editor for Chow Line, explained that the bell peppers each contain ovaries that produce the seeds that are inside and each pepper is then produced through self-fertilization. The seeds are formed in each pepper after pollination, and with those seeds they are able to form new pepper plants.

"The bumps or lack thereof are primarily related to the variety and growing conditions," according to the Oregon State University Extension Service.

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