[CH] a report of happy news in the C. cardenasii department
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:56:25 -0700
I believe I can report that my long-standing wish has been granted, for a
large C. cardenasii fruit. Sort of.
Two weeks ago I noticed a plant in my garden ('garden' sounds so tidy, what
a nice illusion) with flowers that visually are obviously a cross between
C. pubescens and C. cardenasii. Knowing these two closely related species
cross freely, obviously no question how such a thing could have happened,
both parents having been growing intertwined for ten years now.
Well, it turns out this plant has fruits, too, and the ripe one I found is
very much like a large cardenasii -- at least 3 times larger diameter than
the very largest of cardenasii fruits, like about 1 cm diameter instead of
3/16".
The one I ate had a delicious, strong flavor almost just like cardenasii;
it was very juicy, which is a pleasant change from the dry seedy style of
most wild chiles; and it was very pungent, like cardenasii. This one
exceeded my heat tolerance -- that's a surprise I haven't experienced for a
while -- but then it was a lot bigger than cardenasii, so I can't say if it
was hotter (more Scovilles) than cardenasii or just a bigger dose at
perhaps even a somewhat lower Scoville level.
According to the UN/FAO Capsicum crossability matrix (which I posted years
ago to this list), if the male parent was cardenasii, this F1 hybrid should
be highly fertile, but I cannot understand what the table said about if
cardenasii is the female parent of the cross with pubescens.
But of course, fertile little hybrids really don't do me any good, since
their offspring wouldn't likely be true (to my new F1 discovery), so really
all they do is increase the risk I could lose my cardenasii if my old, main
plants die for some reason and the only seeds available to me to replace
them end up being crossed-up hybrids.
But anyway, I guess I'll have to get busy with the clippers and start
making plants by rooting cuttings.
It's so much quicker to harvest 1/2" chiles instead of 1/8" chiles.
Someday maybe I'll figure out a way to get photos of flowers and fruits
onto the web for anyone who might be interested.
--- Brent