''Capsicum flexuosum'' is a member of the genus ''Capsicum,'' and is native to the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

, specifically the southern regions of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Unlike most other

chili peppers Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of 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 add pungency ( ...

, it is only mildly

pungent Pungency ( ) is the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy ( ) is sometimes applied to foods with a lower ...

and has issues with self-compatibility.

Plant description

''Capsicum flexuosum'' is identified by its distinctive white, green, and sometimes purple flowers. The flowers have an entire calyx and campanulate corolla that come in various color varieties, but are generally green toward the center changing to white at the petal edges . Mature fruit of ''C. flexuosum'' are tiny berries with a bullet shape about 7 mm long that ripen to red. It is propagated by seed. It has a somatic chromosome number of 2n=2x=24.

Uses

In Brazil, where the plants occur naturally, ''C. flexusoum'' is sometimes used as a

spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

. Also, since it is a wild pepper species, it has been used extensively in

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

studies to better understand the relationships of peppers and different gene models. This species has also been used as a "bridge species" to cross more distantly related ''Capsicum'' species to those more related to domesticated

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15540707 Chili peppers flexuosum