Do Peppers Have a Gender?

Maybe you’ve seen the picture that is floating around the internet.  In the picture there are two peppers. One has three lobes and the other four with captions that claim one is female and the other is male.  It also claims that the male produces fewer seeds than the female.  This completely incorrect information. In other word the pepper gender meme is a MYTH. The fruit of a pepper plant (or any plant) is genderless.  The whole point of the fruit on a plant is to produce seed it does not begin the process, it is the product of it.

The flowers on a pepper plant are perfect flowers which means it has both the male (anthers) and female (stamen) reproductive organs. Peppers can self pollinate and do not need a second pepper plant around for cross pollination.

Do the “male” peppers produce fewer seeds or taste better than “female” peppers? Taste is all dependent on the variety of pepper chosen and has nothing to do with a mythical gender of a pepper fruit and the same applies for how many seeds it produces. Some peppers have three lobes and others have four. Peppers come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

Claiming that the pepper fruit has a gender is completely not scientific and has no bearing on fruit quality, seed quantity, or pepper shape. Don’t believe everything you read on the interenet!

Here is more information on growing peppers in your home garden.