A mystery pepper... by Peter

Back in April of 2025, a coworker brought in some hot peppers to share that were different than anything I had ever seen before. They were jet black and shiny, and my coworker claimed that they were the offspring of a Hawaiian Chile but they grew on a plant with soft, fuzzy leaves. When fully ripe, the fruits were bright red like a Hawaiian Chile. I was intrigued, and brought a few fruit home to plant the seeds and grow them out. Off the top of my head, the only type of pepper with pubescent (hairy) leaves was Capsicum pubescens, the Manzanillo pepper. But all the pubescens peppers I had seen were thick walled, round peppers and these were thin walled and pointed, like a Hawaiian chile. Maybe these were some type of hybrid? I was excited to see if the seeds of these grew into plants that were variable or consistent and to see how they segregated. 

Fast forward to September 2025, and the dozen or so pepper plants I grew out from that lot are now fruiting. They all have fuzzy leaves, and so far they all have upright, narrow black fruits. Some of the individual plants look like they have fruit that are wider than others but it is hard to tell at this point if it is really due to any genetic variation between them. It could just be some differences in the way the fruit developed due to the weather or the condition of the plant. 

A quick google search indicated that C. pubescens was the only cultivated pepper with fuzzy leaves, but crosses between C. pubescens and most other cultivated species ( including Hawaiian Chile, C. frutescens) were extremely difficult if not impossible to make. OK... this was clearly not just a normal hawaiian chile or pubescens, but if they can't cross, how did this come to be?

I went on a deeper dive and downloaded the latest monograph on pepper taxonomy: " Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers by Barboza et al. (Barboza GE, García CC, Bianchetti LB, Romero MV, Scaldaferro M (2022) Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers (Capsicum L., Solanaceae). PhytoKeys 200: 1-423. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.200.71667). 

I found myself scrutinizing the flowers of the various chile species in my garden. Who knew that Hawaiian chiles have purple anthers whereas bell peppers and Jalapeno anthers are blue green? Or that the throats of Bishop's Hat peppers (C. baccatum) have yellow brown speckles in the throat of the corolla? Nature is cool.

As I went into more depth into the key and species descriptions in the monograph, it became clear that C. pubescens was probably not the unknown parent of the mystery black fruited pepper. C. pubescens flowers have purple petals that are a very different shape from the mystery pepper. And the purple anthers on the mystery pepper most closely resembled the Hawaiian chile, C. frutescens. Digging further, I found out that there actually are some Capsicum annuum types with hairy leaves. The leaves of a Capsicum annum subspecies, C. annum var glabriusculum (commonly known as chiltepin or bird pepper) can be quite hairy. All signs were now pointing to the idea that this was a hybrid between Hawaiian Chile (frutescens) and chiltepin (glabriusculum). In the process of trying to find out what type of chiltepin this might have come from, I stumbled across some Capsicum annuum varieties such as 'Black Cobra' that look remarkably like my mystery pepper. 

Is it truly a hybrid between Hawaiian Chile and some type of chiltepin? I am not in touch with the coworker that I got the seed from any more, but they were quite certain that the seeds came from a Hawaiian Chile plant. Is it possible that they harvested the seeds from a plant that had only red, ripe fruit and mistook a 'Black Cobra' plant for a Hawaiian Chile. Possible, but this coworker remarked on how unusual the fuzzy leaves of this black fruited plant are in comparison to a Hawaiian Chile. Maybe someday I will get the chance to DNA test this plant or get a hold of some 'Black Cobra' seed for comparison. In the meantime, I am calling this pepper 'Raven'. It will make a beautiful ornamental or addition to a spicy Pico de Gallo.