ID this pepper

October 4, 2013 3:21 PM

I received a wonderful present the other day of a pepper plant, but in order to fully appreciate it I'd love to know the specific species. I do know it comes from the jungle in Vietnam, but that's about it.

At first I thought birds eye, but I'm not sure anymore. The peppers themselves are about two inches long and 1/3 of an inch thick right now.

Below are three pics I took. I apologize for the quality.
pic 3
pic 3
pic 3

Get out your tricorders and help me out.

posted by zombieApoc to Home & Garden (2 answers total)

Best answer: The species is almost certainly Capsicum annuum, which is the species of most peppers, cayenne to bell. (Habaneros are a common non-C. annuum pepper, but most others are the same species.)

So discovering the species isn't exactly what you're looking for. You're looking for the variety (also sometimes called a cultivar); these names are often capitalized and set off with single quotes.
Cultivars are like dog breeds, sort of. All dogs are Canis lupus familiaris, but a poodle is a poodle and a great dane is obviously a great dane. If a pepper is globe-shaped and mild, we call it a bell pepper, and if it's pointy and hot, it's a cayenne, but they're both C. annuum. But, like dog breeds, varieties don't mean plants of the same variety are genetically identical or anything, just that they share a set traits such that we can group them together.

I've seen similar peppers called 'Vietnamese Black Dragon', but I've also seen them called black bird's eye. Someone asked bout a similar (but larger) black pointy chile plant on GardenWeb here.
posted by purpleclover at 3:42 PM on October 4, 2013 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Wow. That's it. The fuzziness, petal count and leaf structure all seem to match.

I love a correct answer right away :)
posted by zombieApoc at 4:45 PM on October 4, 2013