Tomato Seeds Amazingly Sprouting Inside a Tomato (Photos)

© Serena_Altschul

Last week, Redditor Serena Altschul posted these pictures of a tomato seedlings sprouting from inside of a tomato fruit that had been forgotten on a kitchen counter for about a month.

© Serena_AltschulSeveral of the seedlings were cut out of the fruit.

© Serena_Altschul

The extracted seedlings were transplanted into the garden.

© Serena_Altschul

The transplanted tomato seedlings survived and soon there were lots of large tomato plants to take care of.

© Serena_Altschul

The resulting tomato plants even managed to produce more tomatoes for Serena Altschul.

As creepy as it looks this isn't all that uncommon. This may have happened with tomatoes you've bought in the past, or you have eaten an apple, pear, or peach with seeds sprouting inside. This condition is called vivipary, and it's prone to happen in some tomato cultivar more than others.

When the natural hormone, abscisic acid, is reduced in an overripe tomato the mature seeds can break dormancy and srout. The moist environment inside of a tomato allows the seedlings to grow for a while without drying out.

Normally it is not recommended to save tomato seeds from a commercially grown tomato because they're hybrids, and you don't know what they'll taste like, but in this case the gardener says the tomatoes tasted fine.

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