Shopper Was ‘Grossed Out’ Seeing Tiny Worms Inside a Tomato — Then She Realized What It Was

Tomatoes are an inevitable part of our daily diet. Somehow, in any shape or form, this red squishy vegetable is plonked on a sandwich, slipped inside a burger, added to a rainbow salad, or ground into a paste for a sauce or gravy. Recently, a strange incident unfolded when a 68-year-old Reddit user burst open a tomato. When this person, going by the moniker u/bggardner11, sliced a tomato, what they saw first shocked them. But soon enough, they realized that it wasn’t something bad. Instead, there was some happy news. The tomato was pregnant!

The person shared a photo of the tomato slices in the Reddit post. The photo shows squiggly noodle-like greenish sprouts emerging from the tiny seed pods, growing from the gelatinous jelly-like pulp carved between the fleshy, spongy tissue. At first glance, the little noodly squiggles triggered a sense of shock in the person, for they thought that these were worms. For a few seconds, they kept staring at the tomato, waiting for the worms to move. Nothing moved. But soon they came upon the understanding that the little things were baby sprouts. “I cut into this tomato and thought it was full of worms. But it’s actually sprouts,” they wrote in the post, adding, “I was super grossed out until I realized the ‘worms’ weren’t moving. Weird, I’m 68 and have never seen this before.”

People reading the post called this bizarre case of sprouts in a tomato by names like “tomatoception,” referring to a “tomato within a tomato.” Many expressed horror and amazement at seeing the green baby noodles curl out of the juicy tomato slice. “I think my gag reflex would've kicked in if I cut into a tomato and saw this,” exclaimed u/nufighter7771. u/2kewl4scool quipped, “You know, if you plant all of those and sell them for a dollar each, you can become a millionaire?” u/BrilliantVarious5995 said, “Most people I know think these are weird and gross, but I say you lucked out! Tomato sprouts are delicious!”

Others who were familiar with this “sprouts in tomato” phenomenon shared brief explanations of its science. For instance, u/BublyInMyButt said, “It's a genetic mutation that appears in some fruits. Most fruits have an enzyme in them that prevents the seeds from sprouting while inside the fruit.” Some people said the phenomenon is termed “vivipary.” They’re correct.

According to the University of Connecticut, Vivipary, a Latin word translating to “live birth,” refers to the phenomenon where the seeds trapped inside a plant start growing from within, while still attached to the placenta of the mother plant. This usually happens when the plant, in this case the tomato, is placed in a warm, moist environment for a long duration. Sitting in this environment for too long, the plant releases a hormone that controls the seed dormancy.

The moist environment ends up exhausting the supply of this hormone, which is when the seeds wake up from the period of dormancy and start exploding into sprouts. As these sprouts poke and jut out of the reddish flesh, until eventually cause the mother tomato to die. These tiny babies can then be potted up and grown into adult tomatoes. But as long as the sprouts are still inside the tomato’s belly, they’re absolutely safe to eat, according to Eat Or Toss.