I obtained this NOID ornamental chili from a plant rack in the supermarket. It was the purple immature fruits that caught my attention. However, I wasn't prepared for the color change as the fruit matures and ripen. This decorative chili have upright fruits (like many ornamental cultivar). The calyx (of the flower and fruit) have veins that prolong into short teeth, no annular constriction between the pedicel-flower junction and coupled with the single flower from each internode (despite the short, fasiculated nodes of the flowering branch) it appears to be a Capsicum annuum.
The leaves and stems have light purple veins and purple stained internodes, and when the leaves are exposed to strong sunlight, they take on a blotchy purple colouration. Pedicels are erect and S-curve at the flower end. Flower opens for one or two days with very short style that puts the stigma almost buried in the anthers; post anthesis, the developing fruit is, like many purple coloured chilies are intially green. They then quickly take on a deep purple colour that turn paler and more lilac as they mature. The intermediate mature, but unripe, fruits are green, and they mature and ripen down (or in this case up) from the tip into a lovely lemony yellow. Flowering appears to be in flushes, and if you keep fruits from the previous flush on the plant, you will get lovely purple blooms against yellow fruits. The fruits will dry on the plant and not detach if the weather is dry and it doesn't suffer bacterial rot or decay.
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| Clockwise from top left corner: Panel showing transition of fruit colours from immature (dark purple) to fully ripened (lemon yellow), close up of fruit at different stages of maturity, plant with all fruits showing the final ripe stage colour, flower on anthesis with ripe fruits from previous flowering flush still attached, plant with mostly immature fruit. |
The fruit has a rather pleasant fruity flavour, unlike cayenne peppers, but that aroma is not translated strongly in the taste. The pepper is about as hot as a hot cayenne pepper, so it is possible to use it for a lot of dishes that requires moderate heat from chili peppers. A note of caution though, if you buy them from the nursery as an ornamental plant, be advised not to eat the fruits that are on the plant when you purchased it as it might have been treated with pesticides not meant for food plants.
Alas, I still couldn't find a name for this hybrid. Most purple coloured chilies ripen through orange to red, but this one is different as it goes through green and ends at yellow. Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me on the name of this pretty and hot ornamental chili pepper. For they time being, I call it my Pretty hot Devil (PhD) as it is pretty, looks hot, dark and the fruit looks like horns on top of the head (like the devil?) and of course, the peppers are pretty hot to taste too, so Pretty hot Devil.
