Lately there has been a rumor on the net that peppers have female and male gender, and that only the female can reproduce, are better to eat raw, sweeter, etc., whereas male ones would have fewer seeds and should be eaten cooked.
The supposed way to know which one is which, would be the number of protuberances at the base of it, with 4 would be female and 3 male.
We check and ... it's FALSE!
The bosses have to do with the variety and the greater or lesser sweetness depends a lot on the ripeness of the fruit, we know that the red peppers are sweeter than greens!
Thus the peppers are not classified according to a genus, since their flowers, from whence they come, possess the feminine and masculine parts, and the fruits, which are the peppers, have no gender! (Source information: article written by an expert on this subject, Paul Bosland, with all botanical specifications: http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Bosland-Janick-Unsexing-the-pepper-2008.jpg).
The next time you look for peppers to use their seeds, do not continue to peek at their base 😄.
We hope that we have contributed to demystify this very trendy "fake news".
Until next time!
By your gardener on duty 😉
More info: clubedojardim1.blogspot.com
Just a nice pepper ...
Image credits: flic.kr
(Credits: Theo Crazzolara; License for reuse:CC BY 2.0 in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
Pepper base: with 4 and 3 bosses
