Daily Botanical: ‘Orchid’ Hot Pepper

These peppers will eventually turn orange but they’re a bit behind. I am honestly surprised to have any at all. They came in a packet marked with germination problems and I actually started them several times thinking I had been unsuccessful. And then, when most of the other seedlings had gone outside to harden off I discovered a tiny seedling had germinated in an unmarked cup, something that had slipped through the cracks in my sophisticated tagging system. A little while later I was able to identify the seedling as a pepper plant. I guessed it was probably the ‘Orchid’ and it was. Yay!
‘Orchid’ is a fruity scotch bonnet type although I have read that its heat rating is only a 2. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. It’s other name is ‘Aji Flor.’ ‘Aji’ is a common prefix used to identify peppers with a Peruvian ancestry. Most of these Peruvian peppers fall under the botanical Capsicum baccatum while the most of the popular hot peppers varieties have the species name annum.
Phew. All of that before noon!



September 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
How beautiful! I just found your site and I’m loving it. Thanks!
September 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Cool.. I picked my first pepper today, a large, knobbly yellow one… can’t wait to have it for my lunch tomorrow!!
S.