Capsicum annuumCapsicum chinense
Named...
...as in a plant "from China". This is incorrect though; like all Capsicum species, it originated in the New World, however, the Dutch physician, Nikolaus von Jacquin, who named this species in 1776, got his seed from the Caribbean while collecting on behalf of Emperor Francis I, and thought that they had originated from China.
The oldest known specimen ever found was a single intact pod, probably a wild form, that was discovered in the Pre-ceramic levels (6,500 B.C.) in Guitarrero Cave in coastal Peru. Capsicum chinense remains the least understood of the domesticated taxa with respect to center of origin and its probable progenitor. Fruit shape can vary from long and slender to short and obtuse. Bernabe Cobo, a 17th century naturalist, estimated that there were at least forty different pod types of the chiles, with "some as large as limes or large plums; others, as small as pine nuts or even grains of wheat, and between the two extremes are many different sizes. Fruit can be extremely pungent and aromatic, with persistent pungency when eaten. The best known cultivars are the very hot Habanero peppers.
Pronounced as 'chi-NEN-see'.
Botany
Flowers 2 or more at each node (occasionally solitary). Pedicels erect or declining at anthesis. Corolla greenish-white (occasionally milky white or purple), without diffuse spots at base of lobes; corolla lobes usually straight. Calyx of mature fruit usually with annular constriction at junction with pedicel, veins not prolonged into teeth. Fruit flesh firm. Seeds straw-coloured. Chromosome number 2n=24, with one pair of acrocentric chromosomes, e.g. Habanero (Mexico), pimento de cheiro (Brazil). The plant has multiple stems and an erect habit. The leaves are pale to medium green, usually ovate in shape and are often large, reaching up to 6 inches long and 4 inches wide. They are usually crinkled, which is a distinguishing trait of Capsicum chinense.
The pods vary enormously in size and shape, ranging from chiltepin-sized berries one-quarter inch in diameter, to wrinkled and elongated pods up to five inches long. The familiar habaneros are pendant, lantern-shaped or campanulate (a flattened bell shape), and some are pointed at the end. Caribbean chinense are often flattened at the end and resemble a tam-o-shanter, or bonnet. Often the blossom ends of these pods are inverted.
White Scotch Bonnet flower © John
Taylor
Aji Limo 'unripe' pod © Nathan
Abbott
Subdivisions & Synonyms
Capsicum chinense Jacquin
