''Capsicum annuum'' var. ''glabriusculum'', a chili-pepper

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of ''

Capsicum annuum ''Capsicum annuum'' is a fruiting plant from the family Solanaceae (nightshades), within the genus Capsicum which is native to the northern regions of South America and to southwestern North America. The plant produces Berry, berries of many color ...

'', is native to southern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Common names include chiltepín, Indian pepper, grove pepper, chiltepe, and chile tepín, as well as turkey, bird’s eye, or simply bird peppers (due to their consumption and spread by wild birds; "unlike humans birds are impervious to the heat of peppers"). ''Tepín'' is derived from a

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

word meaning "

flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

". This variety is the most likely progenitor of the domesticated ''C. annuum'' var. ''annuum''. Another similar-sized pepper, 'Pequin' (also called 'piquin') is often confused with tepin, although the tepin fruit is round to oval where as the pequin's fruit is oval with a point, and the leaves, stems and plant structures are very different on each plant.

Description

Chiltepin is a perennial

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

that usually grows to a height of around , but sometimes reaches . In areas without hard frost in winter, plants can live 35 – 50 years.

Fruit

File:Chiltepin Cluster.png, Cluster of 18 intertwined plants File:Capsicum annuum chiltepin dried.jpg, ''Capsicum annuum'' chiltepin dried The tiny

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

s of ''C. annuum'' var. ''glabriusculum'' are red to orange-red, usually slightly ellipsoidal, and about in diameter. Some strains of tepin peppers are much closer to perfectly round when fresh. A dried tepin pepper appears quite round even if it was slightly ellipsoidal when fresh. Tepin peppers are very hot, measuring between 20,000 – 140,000 SHU, with the highest levels seen in green fruit ~40 days after fruit set. The tepin can be hotter than the

habanero The habanero (; ) is a pungent cultivar of ''Capsicum chinense'' chili pepper. Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. The most common color variants are orange and red, but the fruit may also be white, brown, yellow, green, ...

or red savina. However and since this pepper is primarily harvested from wild stands in the Mexican desert, the heat level of the fruit can vary greatly from year to year, depending on the amount of natural rainfall that occurs during the time the fruits are forming. Fruit heat levels can be weak during drought years, and normal rainfall years produce the highest heat levels. The heat levels also varies between the green fresh fruits (which are pickled in vinegar), red-ripe fresh fruits, dried whole fruit, and dried fruit with the seeds removed, with heat levels arranged from hottest to mildest in that order. Around 50 tons are estimated to be harvested commercially annually in Mexico, primarily in Sonora. In Mexico, the heat of the chiltepin is called ''arrebatado'' ("rapid" or "violent"), because, while the heat is intense, it is not very enduring. This stands in contrast to the domesticated 'Pequin' variety, which is the same size as the wild tepin, but is oval-shaped, and delivers a decidedly different experience. The different drying methods used for the tepin and 'Pequin', can help tell these peppers apart. Tepins are always sun-dried, whereas the Pequins are commonly dried over wood smoke, and the smell of the smoke in the Pequins can help separate the two varieties. Pequins are not as hot as chiltepins (only about 30,000 – 50,000 Scoville units), but they have a much slower and longer-lasting effect.

Habitat and range

''C. annuum'' var. ''glabriusculum'' is native to the Sonoran-Arizonan desert and can be found in

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and

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in the

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, the

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, and

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. It prefers well-drained soils, such as

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

y or

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

s, and of annual precipitation in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. It may be found in areas with a broken forest canopy or disturbed areas that lack tree cover if moisture and soil are favorable. Elsewhere, such as in Arizona, it may require the partial shading of a

nurse plant A nurse plant is one that serves the Ecological facilitation, ecological role of helping seedlings establish themselves, and of protecting young plants from harsh conditions. This effect is particularly well studied among plant communities in xeri ...

Symbolism

Chiltepin was named "the official native pepper of Texas" in 1997, two years after the

jalapeño The jalapeño ( , , ) is a medium-sized chili pepper Fruit, pod type cultivar of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. A mature jalapeño chili is long and wide, and hangs down from the plant. The pungency of jalapeño peppers varies, but is usual ...

became the official pepper of Texas.

Conservation

In 1999,

Native Seeds/SEARCH Native Seeds/SEARCH, founded in 1983, is an American nonprofit conservation organization located in Tucson, Arizona. In the words of its mission statement, it's aims are "to conserve, distribute and document the adapted and diverse varieties of a ...

and the United States Forest Service established the Wild Chile Botanical Area in the

Coronado National Forest The Coronado National Forest is a United States National Forest that includes an area of about 1.78 million acres (7,200 km2) spread throughout mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It is located in parts of ...

. Located in the Rock Corral Canyon near

Tumacacori, Arizona Tumacacori () is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States, which abuts the community of Carmen. Together, the communities constitute the Tumacacori-Carmen census-designated place (CDP). The population of the CDP wa ...

, the preserve protects a large ''C. annuum'' var. ''glabriusculum'' population for study and as a genetic reserve.

Notes

External links

''Tepin''
in What Am I Eating? A Food Dictionary {{Taxonbar, from=Q897733 annuum var. glabriusculum Plants described in 1975 Flora of the Bahamas Flora of the Caribbean Flora of Central America Flora of Colombia Flora of Florida Flora of Mexico Flora of Texas Symbols of Texas Chili peppers