By Nannette Richford, The Examiner
If you are a gardener looking for new and unusual plants, you may be tempted to buy these rare blue watermelon seeds currently being sold on eBay. According to the user profile, 392 packages of blue watermelon seeds have been sold to date, with only 10 packages available as of Feb. 19. They are currently being sold for $1.50 per 10 seeds. While it sounds like a steal of deal, there is one minor problem. Blue watermelons do not exist.
According to Snopes, this hoax has made the rounds of social media sites, like Twitter and Pinterest, for the past several years. The photo in question is nothing more than a digitally altered image where the red watermelon flesh has been changed to brilliant blue.
Some versions attribute the scientific name ‘Asidus’ to this new breed of watermelon and claim it grows in Japan, but there is no such thing as an ‘Asidus’ plant or fruit. To stretch the hoax a little further, some posts claim the fruit of the blue watermelon can transform the flavor of foods, making sour foods taste sweet and salty foods taste bitter. They even go so far as to claim that adding its juice to water gives it an orangey flavor.
While the images of blue watermelon are amazing, they simply aren’t real. According to the North Carolina State University Horticulture Department, the color of watermelon flesh is controlled by several genes. These genes produce flesh in shades of red, orange, yellow and white, but are not capable of producing blue flesh.
If you discover seeds for unusual plants for sale and aren’t sure if they are real, check with your local University Extension or visit a reputable seed company to find out for sure.
Source: The Examiner