Chilli pepper
Capsicum annuum
Botanical family: Solanaceae
The hot cousin of the sweet pepper: same growing but needs more warmth and a longer season. Smaller fruits, often harvested red/orange at full ripeness (hotter). The capsaicin concentrated in the seeds and the white partitions gives the heat.
Full sun
Rich, well-drained
Regular but moderate
Frost-tender: a perennial in warm climates, grown as an annual in ours or overwintered somewhere warm; it needs nights above 12 °C
Frost-tender in your zone
Mostly self-pollinating; insects sometimes cross the flowers
One plant is enough for a crop
Role in permaculture
A natural repellent thanks to capsaicin: a chilli macerate is traditionally used against aphids and ants.
Good companions
Attract pollinators and beneficial insects
Suppress some soil nematodes (dense planting, before the crop)
Traditional companion planting (benefit not demonstrated)
Poor companions
Allelopathy, reputed or observed: may slow some neighbours
Insects attracted or useful
Seasons & availability
Chillies: sown in warmth in late winter, planted out after the last frosts, and picked from summer into autumn; dried, they keep all year.
Available: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Guidance for the oceanic / temperate climate; it may vary with your region, altitude, exposure and growing method.
Sources
- RHS, « How to Grow Chilli peppers » (rhs.org.uk/vegetables/chilli-pepper/grow-your-own)
- Plants For A Future, « Capsicum annuum » (pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Capsicum+annuum)
Nutritional & medicinal properties
For educational purposes. Not a substitute for medical advice. Effects depend on the form, the dose and personal context.
Precautions & contraindications
Hot chillies can irritate the mucous membranes (mouth, eyes) and hinder digestion; it's better to avoid them in case of a gastric ulcer, severe reflux, or a haemorrhoid flare-up. Wear gloves to handle the hot varieties and avoid touching your eyes, as capsaicin marks the skin lastingly. Take care not to confuse certain very pungent ornamental varieties with mild varieties.
In the kitchen & the apothecary
Where to find chilli pepper in preparations: recipes and traditional herbal teas.
Family behaviour: Solanaceae
In general, Solanaceae are very hungry for nitrogen and prone to blight (Phytophthora infestans). They like heat, sun and a rich soil.
Understanding families means learning one rule per family rather than every pairing one by one. Learn more →
Species & varieties
The best-known species and varieties in France.
Common varieties
Voices of peoples
Paraphrases attributed to their documented sources. Never an invented quote.
Early horticultural societies of the Neotropics, from the Bahamas to southern Peru · Tropical America; sites dated from about 6,000 years before present to European contact
Chilli peppers (Capsicum spp.), now part of cuisines worldwide, arose in the Americas. The authors of the study describe a starch grain shape specific to the genus, which makes it possible to recognise chilli in archaeological remains and to trace its domestication and dispersal. These fossil grains were found at seven sites, dated from about 6,000 years before present to European contact, from the Bahamas to southern Peru. Maize and chilli appear there together: an ancient and widespread Neotropical plant food complex, which predates pottery in some regions.
Linda Perry et al., « Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas », Science, 2007, vol. 315, nᵒ 5814, p. 986-988 (DOI 10.1126/science.1136914).
A dated and published archaeological fact (fossil starch grains), not a transmitted saying: presented here as a documented origin, not as fixed wisdom. Specific regions are named rather than 'the Amerindians'. No medicinal virtue is put forward here.
Nahuas (Mexica) of central Mexico, recorded by Bernardino de Sahagún · Tlatelolco market, Valley of Mexico, 16th century
In the Florentine Codex, Sahagún devotes a long notice to the chilli seller and lists a quantity of varieties: green chillies, smoked chillies, the ancestor of the chipotle, water chillies, tree chillies, or pointed red chillies. The attested fact is this merchant and culinary enumeration; the exact labels, for their part, vary with the translation (Anderson & Dibble). The Nahuatl word chilli gave the Spanish chile, then the 'chili' of French and English, while the chilmolli sauce is recognised as the direct ancestor of the mole. Here we have a documented lexical and culinary continuity, and not a mere analogy.
Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Codex de Florence), livre X, « le marchand de chilli », vers 1560-1577 ; contexte rituel et alimentaire évoqué dans JSTOR Daily, « Plant of the Month: Chili Pepper ».
Sahagún's enumeration of varieties is solidly attested and the etymology chilli → chile → chili is a consensus; on the other hand, the reported ritual uses, offerings to Tlaloc, the gestures of the merchants, are not to be read as homogeneous beliefs of a whole people. No medicinal virtue of the chilli is put forward here as a fact.