[CH] pendant wild fruits
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Mon, 30 Nov 1998 11:24:18 -0800
> >> So how many "wild" varieties do you grow, which is more to the
> >> point. Please name a wild variety that does not have erect
> >> fruit.
>
> > C. cardenasii, for one. Tiny, extremely hot and pendant
> > fruit.
>
> John I checked the USDA data base and they only have two
> specimens of C. cardenasii. PI573336 and PI590507.
> Unfortunately fruit position is not entered but DeWitt, Bosland
> - Peppers of the World shows a picture of PI573336 - C.
> cardenasii. The fruit most certainly is erect. Therefore C.
> cardenasii does have a wild erect form.
C. cardenasii may have a wild erect form, but it definitely has a wild form
with non-erect fruits. Wild C. eximium also has non-erect fruits.
2 distinct cultivars of C. cardenasii and one of C. eximium are in my
collection. They all produce only plants with peduncles pendant at
anthesis, and the fruits subsequently also are pendant. As expected with
most wild chiles, the mature fruits are deciduous (they fall off at a
touch, or just by themselves).
I have grown numerous plants from those seeds, and all have been perfectly
uniform, with no variation whatsoever to suggest crossing. All reports
from persons who have received those seeds from me have also reported
plants that are identical to those I've grown, again with no evidence of
crossing. [And all persons who got seeds from me got shares of the
original seeds, not ones I collected myself from my own plants.] They also
perfectly match all known (to me) definitive characteristics of their
respective species.
Those seeds were obtained (years ago, now) from a highly respected Capsicum
taxonomist who has maintained that collection in a much better state of
purity than that of the USDA collection, sad to say. The seeds I got were
replicated from shares from the seeds originally collected in Bolivia,
other shares of which were also sent to USDA for safe-keeping by that
institution.
I personally think it is logical that most wild chiles would have erect
fruits, to make them more easily available to their main dispersal agent,
birds. But regardless how useful a trait it might be, I can't imagine any
necessity such a trait _must_ be present, even aside from knowing
personally through experience it is not always present.
For what it is worth, I'm not sure (I'm not saying it is, I'm not saying it
isn't, I'm just saying I haven't ever seen it listed) that position of
mature fruit, whether erect, pendant, or variable, is even considered a
significant taxonomic characteristic -- unlike flower position, which is.
--- Brent