Re: [CH] PI 590503 C. pubescens

Love2Troll (Love2Troll@kc.rr.com)
Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:17:56 -0500 

>> You left out the most important clue from GRIN entry for this accession:
>> Collected. ... From: La Paz, Bolivia.

Yep, sounds like something I would do.  LOL  Even though I didn't know it was that important.

>> This is certainly odd looking.  Given USDA propensity for having crossed or mixed accessions, I speculate this represents a cross.

But with what?   How many similar shaped C. pubescens exist?  The pod pic that I posted is more pointed than a sibling on the same plant, but very similar.  Unfortunately there were only 3 pods on the plant although another flush of blossoms has just started.  With the current 100°+ days we are having I don't expect any fruit set.  Will bag blossoms anyways.

And 5 cm long elongated 1st year C. pubs can't be all that common.  Or are they?  I don't have your experiece Brent, but am a fairly good observer that knows he has a lot to learn. 

JohnT 







----- Original Message ----- 
From: Brent Thompson 
To: Love2Troll 
Cc: chile-heads 
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: [CH] PI 590503 C. pubescens


> Has anyone else grown this pepper?  Seeds were from the USDA .
> 
> http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid=PI+590503&inactive=Yes
> 
> Erect, woody shrub, 1.2m tall. Flowers purple. Fruits green, yellow, then
> red, to 5cm long, irregularly ovate, thick flesh, black seeds, pungent
> flavor.

You left out the most important clue from GRIN entry for this accession:

> Collected. ... From: La Paz, Bolivia.

I want to say that (for the red ones you have), maybe the 'Fruits green,
yellow, then red' means nothing other than what you speculated in a later
message, that between green unripe and red ripe stages there has to be a
transition, and if you look closely enough at the right time, it looks sort
of yellow then.

All C. pubescens fruits I've ever seen ripen either from green to yellow
(or even later to orangish) or from green to red without what I would any
stage of yellow in between.

But, then I remembered Clear Bright Yellow dried fruits of Aji Amarillo
I've seen imported from Peru, containing seeds which grow the exact same
plants that here always (and usually also in photos of Peruvian specimens)
give deep orange colored fruits.  And I have to conclude maybe there really
_is_ something about Andean lighting/growing conditions that induces more
yellow in the fruits, so maybe those locoto fruits really do turn yellow
first then red in their native Bolivia.

> I'm getting a yellow mature pod on one plant and a red on the other.  Both
> plant's pods are distinctive.
> 
> Here is a pic of the red pods:
> Large file http://www.fototime.com/DDA8595CFD0A423/orig.jpg

This looks like a typical C. pubescens fruit, particularly a C. pubescens
from Bolivia.

> And of the yellow pods:
> Large http://www.fototime.com/64484DFAFAB70C4/orig.jpg

This is certainly odd looking.  Given USDA propensity for having crossed or
mixed accessions, I speculate this represents a cross.  But, my experience
with probably only 15-20 accessions of C. pubescens is insufficient to give
me any clue whether this is some normal though unusual type of C. pubescens
or, if it is a cross as I imagine, what it could possibly be crossed with
to give such a shape.

 ---   Brent