Unusually-shaped vegetable
Encyclopedia
An unusually shaped vegetable is a vegetable
or fruit
that has grown into an unusual shape not in line with the normal body plan
. While some examples are just oddly shaped, others are heralded for their amusing appearance, often representing a body part such as the buttocks
. Pareidolia
can be common in vegetables, with some people reporting the appearance of religious imagery.
A giant vegetable is one that has grown to an unusually large size, usually by design. Most of these maintain the proportions of the vegetable but are just larger in size.
is growing and the tip is damaged, it can sometimes split, forming multiple roots attached at one point. If a plant is in the primordium
(embryonic development) stage, damage to the growing vegetable can cause more extreme mutations.
The unusual shape can also be forced upon the vegetable. In Japan
, farmers of the Zentsuji
region found a way to grow cubic watermelons by growing the fruits in glass boxes and letting them naturally assume the shape of the receptacle. The square shape supposedly makes the melons easier to stack and store, but the cubic watermelons are often more than double the price of normal ones. Using similar techniques, growers have also created more complex shapes of watermelon, including dice, pyramids, and faces.
Some giant vegetables have been purposely cultivated to be of an enormous size, with artificial selection
being used to create large hybrids. Serious growers (those who enter competitions and aim for world records) trade seeds through clubs or over the Internet.
If carrot
s are grown in soil which has been manure
d that year, some of the carrots are strange shapes because the young carrot plant's roots go off in odd directions, drawn by irregular pockets of manured soil.
s being particular favourites.
's James and the Giant Peach
takes this to the extreme, with the title character sailing inside the gigantic peach
across the Atlantic Ocean
. Giant vegetable competitions feature in a number of films and television series, such as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
in which it is central to the plot. That's Life!
, a popular British television show, frequently featured unusually shaped vegetables that were sent in or photographed by viewers.
The BBC
comedy television programme Blackadder
contains several jokes relating to the character Baldrick and his obsession with odd-shaped turnip
s. The most notable example occurs in the episode "Beer
", in which Baldrick discovers a turnip shaped exactly like a "thingie
", giving rise to several jokes throughout the episode.
Unusually shaped vegetables feature in the Terry Pratchett
novel The Truth
, where a man constantly submitting them to a newspaper for publication is a minor but frequent annoyance to the paper's editor.
Ben Elton
's novel This Other Eden
is set in a future in which most aspects of life are controlled to conformity, meaning the loss of 'amusingly shaped vegetables', much to the protagonist's annoyance.
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
or fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
that has grown into an unusual shape not in line with the normal body plan
Body plan
A body plan is the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry, its number of body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan...
. While some examples are just oddly shaped, others are heralded for their amusing appearance, often representing a body part such as the buttocks
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
. Pareidolia
Pareidolia
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse...
can be common in vegetables, with some people reporting the appearance of religious imagery.
A giant vegetable is one that has grown to an unusually large size, usually by design. Most of these maintain the proportions of the vegetable but are just larger in size.
Causes
Vegetables usually grow into an unusual shape due to environmental conditions. Damage to one part of the vegetable can cause the growth to slow in that area while the rest grows at the normal rate. When a root vegetableRoot vegetable
Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables. Here "root" means any underground part of a plant.Root vegetables are generally storage organs, enlarged to store energy in the form of carbohydrates. They differ in the concentration and the balance between sugars, starches, and other types of...
is growing and the tip is damaged, it can sometimes split, forming multiple roots attached at one point. If a plant is in the primordium
Primordium
A primordium , in embryology, is defined as an organ or tissue in its earliest recognizable stage of development. Cells of the primordium are called primordial cells...
(embryonic development) stage, damage to the growing vegetable can cause more extreme mutations.
The unusual shape can also be forced upon the vegetable. In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, farmers of the Zentsuji
Zentsūji
is the name of famous Buddhist temple and city in Japan. Below is an incomplete list:*Temple - Zentsū-ji. It is an origin of the following city name.*City - Zentsūji, Kagawa...
region found a way to grow cubic watermelons by growing the fruits in glass boxes and letting them naturally assume the shape of the receptacle. The square shape supposedly makes the melons easier to stack and store, but the cubic watermelons are often more than double the price of normal ones. Using similar techniques, growers have also created more complex shapes of watermelon, including dice, pyramids, and faces.
Some giant vegetables have been purposely cultivated to be of an enormous size, with artificial selection
Artificial selection
Artificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive...
being used to create large hybrids. Serious growers (those who enter competitions and aim for world records) trade seeds through clubs or over the Internet.
If carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s are grown in soil which has been manure
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
d that year, some of the carrots are strange shapes because the young carrot plant's roots go off in odd directions, drawn by irregular pockets of manured soil.
Legislation
In the European Union, recent attempts to introduce legislation prohibiting the sale of misshapen fruit and vegetables were defeated. The proposed "uniform standardisation parameters" would have applied to straight bananas and curved cucumbers, as well as to more extreme cases such as carrots with multiple "legs", or fused fruit. The main concern for opponents of the proposed legislation was the ethical question of the wastage it would have generated if growers were forced to discard up to 20% of their crop, produce that was nutritionally identical to more regularly shaped specimens.Competitions
It is common in some countries to celebrate the diversity of vegetable shapes, with particularly unusual items being entered into competitions. Many of these are judged by the ugliness of the vegetable. Some organisations run contests in which gardeners enter the largest vegetables that they have grown, with pumpkinPumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...
s being particular favourites.
Popular culture
Oversized vegetables have featured prominently across many media. Roald DahlRoald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
's James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The original first edition published by Alfred Knopf featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. However, there have been various reillustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael...
takes this to the extreme, with the title character sailing inside the gigantic peach
Peach
The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. Giant vegetable competitions feature in a number of films and television series, such as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...
in which it is central to the plot. That's Life!
That's Life!
That's Life! was a magazine-style television series on BBC1 between 26 May 1973 and 19 June 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. The show was generally recorded about an hour prior to transmission, which was originally on Saturday...
, a popular British television show, frequently featured unusually shaped vegetables that were sent in or photographed by viewers.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
comedy television programme Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
contains several jokes relating to the character Baldrick and his obsession with odd-shaped turnip
Turnip
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock...
s. The most notable example occurs in the episode "Beer
Beer (Blackadder)
"Beer" is the fifth episode of the BBC sitcom Blackadder II, the second series of Blackadder, which was set in Elizabethan England from 1558 to 1603. In the episode, an embarrassing incident with a turnip, an ostrich feather and a fanatically Puritan aunt leads to a right royal to-do in the...
", in which Baldrick discovers a turnip shaped exactly like a "thingie
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
", giving rise to several jokes throughout the episode.
Unusually shaped vegetables feature in the Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
novel The Truth
The Truth (novel)
The Truth is the twenty-fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 2000.The book features the coming of movable type to Ankh-Morpork, and the founding of the Discworld's first newspaper by William de Worde, as he invents investigative journalism with the help of his reporter Sacharissa...
, where a man constantly submitting them to a newspaper for publication is a minor but frequent annoyance to the paper's editor.
Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
's novel This Other Eden
This Other Eden (novel)
This Other Eden is a satirical novel written by Ben Elton.-Plot introduction:The novel is set in the reasonably near future. Earth is being devastated by Mankind's continued exploitation, and it seems obvious that the environment will collapse sometime in the near future...
is set in a future in which most aspects of life are controlled to conformity, meaning the loss of 'amusingly shaped vegetables', much to the protagonist's annoyance.
External links
- Love Carrots and Other Vegetables - "A sporadic photographic journal of weird or humorous vegetables".
- The Mutato Collection - "A collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables".
- MoFa-Museum of Food Anomalies - "An online exhibition of the Art of Regular Food Gone Horribly Wrong."
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8587496.stm - "Attempt at EU-wide 'wonky fruit and veg' ban fails."