Another tasty flavor for Christmas is red pepper, which can take the form of bell peppers, spicy chili peppers, and a host of varieties in between. Tasty holiday recipes include red pepper jelly, sweet chili sauce on cream cheese and crackers, chili con carne, and spicy salsa for chips. Whether you desire sweet or heat, the range of flavors spices up any holiday spread.
Capsicum annuum (bell pepper, chili pepper) is in the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family. Capsaicin is the active component that causes the burning sensation for humans and other mammals. Birds are not affected, so are effective sowers of the seeds. Heat is measured in Scoville heat units (SHU), ranging from 0 for bell peppers to over 2,000,000 for the Caroline Reaper cultivar.
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| Botanical
illustration of Capsicum annuum from
Koehler's Medicinal Plants. Published before 1923 and public domain in the United States. |
Red peppers originated in Central and South America, and the Caribbean, and records show they have been cultivated since 3,000 B.C. According to J.O. Swahn in The Lore of Spices, Christopher Columbus’s physician brought peppers back to Spain, where they became popular ornamental, and then culinary, plants. Peppers spread throughout the Mediterranean and in countries further east, such as India, Southeast Asia, and China. They are now an important ingredient for spicy, regional cuisines all over the world.
Red peppers grow to 30 inches high; and are perennial, but often treated as annuals. They may be glabrous or pubescent. Leaves are lanceolate, one – five inches long. Flowers are solitary, rarely two at a node; calyx is rotate, five-toothed; corolla is white, five-lobed to ½ inch across. The fruit varies in shape, size, color, and pungency. Five main groups of peppers are included in C. annuum: (1) Cerasiforme (cherry peppers), (2) Conoides (cone peppers), (3) Fasciculatum (red cone peppers), (4) Grossum (bell or sweet peppers), and (5) Longum (chili or cayenne peppers).
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