Pepper

Pepper is where the difference between a crop and a species stops being academic. Nearly all supermarket peppers, bells and jalapenos and cayennes alike, are Capsicum annuum. The habaneros and Scotch bonnets are C. chinense, a separate domestication with a distinct fruity aroma and most of the world's superhots. Tabasco is C. frutescens. The South American ajis are C. baccatum, recognizable by the yellow-green spots on their flower petals. And rocoto is C. pubescens, so distinct that it will barely cross with the others: hairy leaves, purple flowers, and black seeds no other cultivated pepper produces. Heat comes from capsaicinoids concentrated in the placental tissue, not the seeds, and is reported in Scoville Heat Units. Published SHU figures are ranges rather than constants because capsaicin production responds to heat, drought, and soil, so the same cultivar can vary several-fold between seasons. Every heat figure on this site is recorded as a measurement with its own source, not as a fixed attribute.