[CH] Variable pungency chilis; inedible/poisonous fruits
Gene Dunnam (EDUNNAM@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU)
Thu, 12 Nov 98 08:55:50 EST
Greetings-
I believe it's been mentioned here before, but chili pungency ['heat']
varies widely depending on the plant's growth history. Although it's not stric
tly true, a stressed plant is likely to produce 'hotter' fruits than one that
has been totally 'happy'. The 3rd or 4th year I grew Jalapenos I produced a
crop from saved seed that was as mild as bell peppers & I was sure that these
were seeds from inadvertent 'crosses' with bells. Thinking that I had a mild
Jal that some of my tender-palate friends would like I saved these seed---and
guess what? They produced a batch that was as hot as any I've grown! Later on
I learned [from Jean Andrews' book, I think] about the stress-variability.
On poisonous fruits: as several have mentioned, ALL capsicums are edib
le, though some may not be as tasty as others. However there's at least one
ornamental plant---a nightshade [solanaceae] variety---that IS poisonous. It
looks a bit like a chile [capsicums are members of the nightshade family] and
is often sold in pots, sometimes as a 'Christmas' or 'Jerusalem' pepper. The
fruits are marble-size [10-12 mm diameter], perfectly round, and are usually
orange-red as they ripen. The foliage is darker green than that of most chili
plants. If you pop a fruit between your fingers the smell tells you [or tells
me, anyway!] that it's not a pepper: it has a 'green', tomatoe-y odor. Also,
the fruit is 'juicy'---the seeds are surrounded by a watery pulp whereas chili
seeds are not. I've not seen any of these recently except in specialty plant
catalogs. But it should be watched for.
Gene Dunnam
Gator Slide Farm
Micanopy, FL