PEPPER - Pequin
I got these seeds from Trade Winds Fruit and from a trade. A member of the Capsicum annuum family, these tiny peppers offer some pretty extreme heat. Coming in at 40,000-60,000 Scoville units, these 1/2-3/4 inch long peppers are often dried and used in hot sauce, salsa, soup, or in flavored oils or vinegar. The peppers mature from green to red, and there is a brown phase, but I'm not sure if it is before or after the red phase (one site referenced it ripening to brown after red, several photos make it look like brown is between green and red - I'm not sure). Plants can be grown in containers and over-wintered indoors. Outside of their native habitat (Southern US and Northern Mexico) these plants stay pretty small, 11-24 inches. In their native habitat they can grow 5-6 feet tall! Pequin chile peppers are also referred to as "rice peppers" or "bird peppers" but don't confuse them with chiltepin peppers (also called bird peppers). They are different. Pequins have more of an elongated oval shape. They are said to have a smokey flavor, with a bit of a citrus flavor. Use them green for fresh salsa.
105-150 days to maturity
105-150 days to maturity