I'd like to obtain some seeds of bird pepper plants. They are growing wild in Texas and should be perennial when planted in zone 9 areas. They are the ancestors of modern day pimiento peppers. They are similar to Philippine's "Siling Labuyo" only that these are cold hardier. The bird peppers are the hottest among the hot peppers. If the jalapeno peppers registers 2,500 on a scale of hotness, the Philippine Siling Labuyo registers 3,500 on the same scale while the bird pepper registers a whopping 12,000!!!

The scientific name is: Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum

While this is one of the hottest peppers known, they are only hot to the taste buds of mammals, but the birds do love them and do not feel the heat at all. Afterall, millions of years of coevolution, the birds have helped propagate these species by seeds and so the plants have designed chemicals that fends off mammals but do not affect birds.

So if you plan to spray hot chili pepper concoction on your fruits, you will only turn off mice, rats, squirrels, raccoons, but not the birds.

Here's the link:
http://hartmanprehistoricgarden.com/sa-capsicum.html

What a lovely plant, considering the cost of "Deer Away" which I have to spay my trees with to keep the squirrels away, this would be a cheaper way to make a nice "hot" cup of squirrel tea! I wonder if they could be grown in containers?

Joan, they are commonly grown in containers as ornaments. But I would love the wild ones growing in Texas, MrTexas?

If you want to grow peppers to use as a deterrent for mammals, habaneros are the hottest-- coming in at a whopping 80,000 to some claim as high as 300,000 scoville units.

Skeet

Skeet, you are using the Scoville scale which is imprecise. I forgot what the scale to my reference was. Anyway on the same scale, the bird pepper is at par with Habaneros if both are prepared the same way. The 300,000 scoville units are for Habanero peppers that are carefully air dried and powdered. Habaneros are rated consistently as the hottest. Since bird peppers are unknown and usually too few to be processed the same way as habanero's larger fruits, so it remains unknown or biased towards a slightly lower ranking, but recent articles rate it as at par with habaneros. So probably on the same scale, processed and prepared the same way, it could be around 275,000 scoville units.

Joe
Those wild peppers were plentiful here years ago. I always saw them growing under or near trees and I suppose that is because they grow from bird droppings. No promises ,but I will try to locate some seeds for you.
The problem is that farmers spray everything with herbicides and these little plants would not survive that.

will truly appreciate it Karl.

Main reason why I have interest in them because they are cold hardy and can grow perennial in California and other zone 9 areas. I can have hot peppers all year long, and leaves, fresh from the plants. We use the leaves in various soup recipes. The habaneros are annuals and die after the first frost.

Joe
Anyone who can eat these things will never have worms in the digestive track. I think we are talking about the same Pepper. The ones here turn red in the fall and are just about the size and shape of a marble.
I bit into one of these peppers when I was a teenager and that memory has lasted a lifetime. I don’t know if they are as hot as habaneros and I will never intentionally find out.
Karl

as to the why birds like the hot peppers.. from some reading can't remember where now.. it is said birds and fish do not taste the heat.. but the capsicum causes birds and fish to be more colorful.. I tend to believe the more colorful bird theory as peppers are commonly put in parrot and other bird seed blends.. so naturally a bird wanting to be more colorful for attracting a mate would want to eat the peppers.. I'm not sure about the fish.. I've considered putting capsicum in my fish tank to test the theory and deter critters from filching my fish but have yet to do it.. and I am sorry I haven't tried as something has been getting my fish and I have lost 4 fish in the past two months.. I might try this soon..

If you put hot peppers in with the wild bird seed your wild birds in your yard will be more colorful and the squirrels will not want to eat at your feeder.. I sprinkle powdered hot pepper on all bird seed I set out.. then even the birds that won't go for the dried peppers will get a bit of capsicum..

Just my 2 c.

Looks like a cute pepper plant.. Hope you find one..

Gina *BabyBlue*

I have an African gray and normally I've seen this dried up peppers in their food. My bird is so talkative and the life of the party and normally trying to "converse" with my wife and very commanding. He/she always telling my kids and wife to clean the floor and say "quiete!" when he/she was annoyed. But he was also lovable. She would kiss you and say I love you or say how are you.
Before I was wondering why they have peppers in them and wondered why my bird might throw up because of the heat. Now I know.
Now I wonder what kinds are those? Texas peppers?

The bird peppers are marginally higher scorers than habaneros, says Sue Fitz of Davis:

Quote:

The only truly perennial pepper in the U.S. is the pequin, or bird pepper,(Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum). These grow wild in Texas and are quite ornamental, as well as being one of the hottest peppers known. On the Scoville scale, jalepenos are 2,500 ~ 8,000 units, while bird peppers are 125,000 ~ 325,000 units, so I wouldn't toss one down casually! These are perennial in the Austin area, which us USDA zone 8, I think, so would survive Palo Alto nicely.

In that case I'm going to steal a few and spread them in my garden.
Thanks.

Being somewhat of a pepper nut myself, if anyone has some extras seed I would like to try them. I eat a lot of peppers, mostly jalapenos, but I have eaten habaneros straight without a chaser-- they are a little "warm".

I also use to have a purple pepper that was every bit as warm to the taste-- I used it to win many a pepper eating contest.

As for the scoville scale, I don't know how it is measured or how precise it is, but there is clearly a lot of variability in peppers of the same variety. I have had jalapenos that are like dill pickles and some that even get my attention. I think one of the factors that increases the heat is "hot and dry" growing conditions.

Skeet

Skeet, yes, peppers grown in hotter environments tend to be hotter in taste for the same cultivar.