The Belly Button Plant

image Vincent linked to this in the hoax forum, and I thought it was bizarre enough that I should post it here where I can add a poll to it. The story is that 'Stephan M' lost his clothes overboard while on a canoe trip, so he had to wear the same things for the next six days. When he got home he took off his sweater and discovered that a seedling had sprouted in his belly button lint. He took photos of it as proof. Now to me this seems like a joke. I think he just stuck a leafy twig in his belly button and started snapping photos. But would it even be theoretically possible for this to happen? Wouldn't the sweater rubbing against his skin damage a delicate seedling and prevent it from growing? I think so. I also think that the sweaty, salty environment would kill a plant. But others might disagree.

Folklore/Tall Tales

Posted on Wed Oct 13, 2004


Comments

It's a tomato plant - something you don't often find on a camping trip.
Posted by g1g3m  on  Wed Oct 13, 2004  at  01:01 PM
A seed might sprout in a human navel, if the environment were moist enough and the seed didn't fall out (and the person could resist the urge to scratch it), but it wouldn't look like the photo.
First, if the person was wearing a sweater, shirt, or whatever all or most of the time, the sprout would not have green leaves. Chlorophyll does not develop in the absence of light.
Second, the sprout would not grow straight out from the stomach unless the person had lain on his back continually for a few weeks. Instead, it would grow upward, toward the light.
So this is just a photo-enhanced version of an old joke.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Wed Oct 13, 2004  at  01:10 PM
That is one ugly belly.
Posted by Gee...  on  Wed Oct 13, 2004  at  02:00 PM
That is disgusting.
Posted by Eww  on  Wed Oct 13, 2004  at  03:27 PM
Yuk
Posted by john  on  Wed Oct 13, 2004  at  03:52 PM
My mom always said that potatoes would start to grow in our ears if we didn't keep them clean. Every now & again she'd say, "Yep, there's a whole field in there!"

He said the reason the seed was able to sprout was b/c of his loose-knit sweater. BUT...He's a big fat liar.
Posted by Maegan  on  Thu Oct 14, 2004  at  11:34 AM
Maegan, I had an uncle who, as a boy, was told one time too many that his ears were so dirty he could grow an orange tree in them. About a week later they had to take him to the doctor for a pain in his ear. You guessed it, he'd stuck an orange seed in there. No word on whether it really sprouted.
Posted by Matt  on  Thu Oct 14, 2004  at  02:20 PM
i visit C2C about every week or so to check out the "paranormal" pictures. the overwhelming majority of them are fake. i put this in the same category. i think the people there just want attention. i was thinking of submitting some obviously fake UFO photos where the UFO is a photoshopped can of spam flying overhead. of course, i would put in the description that i used a digital camera to take the pictures, and i would SWEAR that they weren't fake. but then i would say that kodak examined the negatives and determined that they were authentic. heh. maybe i just want a little attention?
Posted by bugbear sloth  on  Thu Oct 14, 2004  at  08:47 PM
Don
Posted by Evey  on  Fri Oct 15, 2004  at  06:07 AM
With a big enough belly button, a lot of patience, and a thimblefull of soil, you could sprout (and that'about it)a seed in your bellybutton, but nothing like the small tree in this photo
Posted by joesixpack  on  Fri Oct 15, 2004  at  05:19 PM
Matt, that's really funny. I think that's much better than a potato.
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Oct 17, 2004  at  08:41 AM
Six days is a short time for anything to even start growing, much less get that big. And the leaf stem looks brown, which would also make it much older.
Posted by Ana  on  Wed Dec 08, 2004  at  11:27 AM
Cute story.

But that seems like an excessive amount of "belly button lint" to me.
Posted by malvakai  on  Tue Feb 21, 2006  at  02:24 PM
Reminds me of a Gary Larson cartoon, a guy is looking in the mirror and a tree is growing out of his head. The caption says: "Dang! Always before a big date!" or something like that.
Posted by Meerkat  on  Sat Aug 12, 2006  at  09:55 PM
for me it's real becoiuse i love this kind of things I know other incredibles story like this 😊 MIRACLES OF NATURE!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by francesca  on  Mon Aug 13, 2007  at  10:37 AM
I think it is just like a tomato plant. Ya, i have also heard so many stories like you guys. It has always been a miraculous and even make us to think whether it is true or not...
Posted by hinduja  on  Tue Jul 15, 2008  at  12:08 AM
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