Pepper Variety Identification
This informaton will help to identify various varieties. We know first hand that some varieties can look just like another except for slight differences in some cases.
This is what we do know. Pods can look different depending on growing conditions and plant health.
The first thing to look for is plant difference. Some plants will only grow to a certain height/or size like growing only a foot or two high, or six feet high. Another difference is plants having darker leaf colour or different leaf size. Second pods will start out with different colours like light green, pale green or dark green, light yellow, whitish or purple, and even black. Here are some pictures of three different varieties.
As you can see one could think that these are all the same plant. If you look at photo three, you can see in the bottom right that the pod is dark green. This is the starting color. There are other differences in these three photos, and that is pod shape (although very similar). These pods are more pointed, and also have different pod textures. The first pod in photo one are rougher than the pods in photo two, and in photo three the pods are smoother. We can see the difference in texture easier when comparing photo one to photo three.
Here are pictures of the same variety and one can see that the same plant can have different coloured pods at its starting colour. This varieties' normal color is dark green as its starting color but it had some light green ones. This could be because of lighting or growing conditions
Here in the pictures above you can see the difference in plants and pod look of the same variety. However, grown in two different places in the same climate. The difference in growing conditions with these two was the one on the left was grown in the ground, and the one on the right was grown in a 3 gallon pot. Both plants were grown outside and reserved the same amount of sun.
Heres a look at some seedling Capsicum Chinense Capsicum Pubescens Capsicum Annuum and Capsicum Baccatum and Capsicum Frutescens
First picture here is a C.Chinense
And this is a C.Pubescens
Here is a C.Annuum
And the C.Baccatum
And the C.Frutescens
Flowers play a very big role in plant identification and just about no two varieties flowers are the same although Vary similar and if they look the same and can’t tell them apart then you need to move on to one of the other ways to identify a Pepper Variety.
Here’s a look at the different Flowers from the different Spieces
We will start with Flower Color
White flowers are most Common among three or more of the species. Along with purple and a combination of both white and purple. This is most common with C.Annuum and C.Chinense. And C.Pubescens. The c.Pubescens has flowers with purple and some with purple and some white on certain varieties. And C.Chinense have creamy white with a little creamy yellow as well as bright white.
Here’s a look at some flowers from each Speices
Here is Capsicum Annuum Flowers
Here’s Capsicum Chinense Flowers
Here’s Capsicum Pubescens Flowers
Heres Capsicum Baccatum Flowers
As you can see flower come in many different colours and this also helps in identifying the Variety
Here are some picture of Wild and Rare varieties flowers
So here is some pictures of leaves from the different Speices
More to come
There is a saying to entertain...
Eating chiles is a little like tasting wine. When you first drink wine, all you notice is the taste of alcohol. Then the more you drink the more you can tell if it's red or white, and with time you soon taste the difference between the varieties. Eventually, you can tell what region the wine comes from. That’s how it is with chilli peppers. At first all you taste is heat, but soon you’ll be able to tell which heat sensations you like best and you'll start to taste the real flavour and start to tell the difference between varieties.