On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:09:51 -0600, zxcvbob
wrote:

belly wrote:

Interestingly, I have a pack of cayenne seeds, it lists them as
annuums, however, when looking at several web pages, some list
cayennes as frutescens, others list them as annuum. One thing that
they all agree on, is that all the milder peppers like bells, paprika,
pimento, etc., are all annuum. Do you know if maybe they were
reclassified in the last couple years? I seem to remember my first
brush with cayennes, they were called frutescens, but that was
probably 25 years ago.


Cayenne are annuum, tabasco are frutescens, and habaneros and scotch
bonnets are chinense. All three species will cross and produce viable
seeds, so the distinction seems rather dubious to me.

My brother grows mild scotch bonnet peppers ("Trinidad Spice" is one of the
varieties, I think), so the statement that all mild peppers are annuum is
false no matter how many "experts" say it.

Let's see, there are two _C chinense_ that I know of that are
sweet, Sweet Datil and a Puerto Rican one. There are more
mild ones; the Trinidad Spice you mentioned, Trinidad Perfume,
Grenada Seasoning, St. Lucia Seasoning, and Puppy
are all mild. Christmas Bell is a mild _C baccatuum_. However,
the number of sweet and mild peppers that are _C annuum_
vastly outnumbers the other species. Of course, the number
of varieties of _C annuum_ vastly outnumbers the number of
varieties of other species too.


Penelope



--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"