| Dicotyledon | Literature for Capsicum frutescens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
| Solanaceae -- The Nightshade Family | Bibliography |
| Capsicum frutescens | |
Common name(s): chili peper, pepper, red pepper, bird pepper, nioi, nioi pepa |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Widely cultivated in North to South America and many tropical regions, but exact locality of origin uncertain. In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Annual or short-lived perennial herb or subshrub, 1‒2 m tall; stems striate, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with simple hairs on young growth. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate; blade ovate to broadly lanceolate, 2.5‒7 cm long, 1.5‒3 cm wide, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate, base subcuneate, oblique; petiole narrowly winged adaxially, 0.8‒2 cm long. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences a solitary flower in the leaf axils and stem forks or more commonly 2‒4 per axil. Flowers on pedicel 1‒2.5 cm long, stout in fruit, erect; calyx cupular, truncate, 3‒4 mm long, lobes minute; corolla greenish white or greenish yellow, divided ca. ½ to base, lobes triangular, ca. 1.5 cm in diameter; stamens 5, inserted toward base of corolla tube, filaments ca. 1‒2 mm long, anthers bluish, oblong, opening by slits, 1.5‒2 mm long; ovary bilocular, ovate, 1.5‒2 mm long, style 1, erect, 3‒4 mm long, stigma small, terminal. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit erect, green or yellow ripening bright red, pungent, ellipsoid-conical to lanceoloid, 10‒20 mm long, 3‒7 mm in diameter. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds yellowish, flattened lenticular, 3‒4 mm long. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 24. |
|
| Notes |
Self compatible. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
