Capsicum baccatum

 

Named...

 

...as in "berry" like peppers. This distinct South American species is characterised by cream coloured flowers with gold/green corolla markings and has the common cultivar name Aji. Typically, fruits are elongated with cream coloured seeds. The wild gene pool, tightly linked to the domesticate, is designated Capsicum baccatum var. baccatum and is most common in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

 

Pronounced as 'bah-KAY-tum'.

 

Botany

 

Flowers solitary at each node. Pedicels erect or declining at anthesis. Corolla white or greenish-white, with diffuse yellow spots at base of corolla lobes on either side of mid-vein [flower is white with yellowish spots, anthers are white but turn brownish-yellow with age]; corolla lobes usually slightly revolute. Calyx of mature fruit without annular constriction at junction with pedicel (though sometimes irregularly wrinkled), veins prolonged into prominent teeth. Fruit flesh firm. Seeds straw-coloured. Chromosome number 2n=24, with one pair of acrocentric chromosomes, e.g. Escabeche (Peru).

 


Brazilian Starfish © John Taylor

 

Subdivisions & Synonyms

 

Capsicum frutescens var. baccatum Synonym for Capsicum baccatum var. baccatum

Capsicum baccatum var. baccatum The wild subspecies (common name: Locoto)

Capsicum baccatum var. microcarpum (common name: Aji or Peruvian Pepper)

Capsicum baccatum var. pendulum The cultivated subspecies (common name: Aji) 

 

Capsicum baccatum var. praetermissum (common name: Ulupica). Pods are spherical, 6mm in diameter, red in colour and grow on bushy plants. Local name from Itaberai, Brazil is 'Pimenta Cumari'. Also known as Capsicum praetermissum