Re: [CH] fuzzy serranos? V7 #364 WARNING - Totally On/T!
Cameron Begg (begg.4@osu.edu)
Wed, 06 Jun 2001 09:55:27 -0400
Hi C-H's,
I was corresponding with James Robertson (conjuring thoughts of a
favorite actor of mine) who wrote:
> >habs are capsicum chinense (big misnomer since they originate from the
> > >carribean way)
....and I answered:
> >> I always thought it was because they are shaped like Chinese lanterns.
Well I checked in my copy of "Peppers of the World" by DeWitt &
Bosland (an excellent book) and discovered the following:
"The Amazon Basin was the center of origin for the C. chinense
species, famous for having the hottest peppers in the world.
[Although some would dispute that claim - CB] The oldest known C.
chinense ever found was the 6,500-year-old intact pod found in
Guitarrero Cave in Peru."
As for the species name:
"Bernabe Cobo, a naturalist who travelled throughout South
America during the early seventeenth century, was probably the first
European to study the C. chinense species. He estimated that there
were at least forty varieties..............."
"The species was first listed botanically in 1768 in "A
Gardener's Dictionary" by Phillip Miller, who identified it as
Capsicum angulofum, a West Indian pepper with wrinkled leaves and a
bonnet shape. [Sounds like he was describing Scotch Bonnet/Habenero
type pods - CB] The species was then misnamed Capsicum chinense in
1776 by Nikolaus von Jacquin, a Dutch physician [See Dewi - the
lowlanders should have stuck to painting! - CB] who collected plants
in the Carribean for Emperor Francis I from 1754 to 1759. Jacquin,
who first described the species as "chinense" in his work, 'Hortus
botanicus vindobonensis', wrote, mysteriously, 'I have taken the
plant's name from its homeland.'
Why would Jacquin write that a plant native to the West
Indies was from China? Jaquin had never collected plants in China,
and considering the fact that the first Chinese laborers to the West
Indies would not arrive in Cuba until the early 1800's, it is
unlikely that Jaquin crossed paths with any suspected Chinese
'importers' of the species. It is likely that this pepper mystery
will never be solved, so we are stuck with a totally inaccurate
species name of a supposedly Chinese pepper that's not from China.
And so far, no taxonomist has gone out on a limb to correct this
obvious error."
Looks like we would be calling it C. angulofum but for the errant Nederlander.
>Still love my c. baccatum "Aji yellow". Delicious ! Same with my c.
>pubescens "Hot Lips". Really looking forward to its second year fruiting...
Which color of C. pub do you prefer the flavor of?
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Regards, Cameron.