Capsicum frutescens
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Green "Bird-Eye-Chili" from Thailand ( Capsicum frutescens ) |
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| Capsicum frutescens | ||||||||||||
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Capsicum frutescens is a plant from the genus peppers ( Capsicum ) from the family of the nightshade family .
description
The plants of the species Capsicum frutescens are small shrubs up to 2 m in height. They grow herbaceous at first, but can also become very lignified with age. The flowers and fruits that are always upright on the plant are typical of Capsicum frutescens . Several of the flowers are in the branches of the stem axis . The calyx is calyx-shaped to almost tubular, slightly toothed and has no ring-shaped thickening at the base of the peduncle, as occurs for example in Capsicum chinense . The crown is white or greenish, the corolla lobes are splayed or bent. The anthers are blue to purple, rarely yellow. The stylus protrudes 1.5 mm or more over the anthers. The fruits usually ripen more slowly than other cultivated species of the genus, ripe fruits fall off easily and are usually red in color.
use
Capsicum frutescens is mainly used as a spice due to the sharpness of the fruits. The fruits contain almost twice as much of the alkaloid capsaicin, which is responsible for the sharpness, as most representatives of the species Capsicum annuum . Most famous are the varieties " Tabasco ", from which the Tabasco sauce , and the South American variety " Malagueta ", from which the piri piri sauce is made.
Botanical history
The species Capsicum frutescens was first described by Carl von Linné in his work Species Plantarum in 1753 . He was referring directly to the description from Adriaan van Royen's Florae Leydensis Prodromus (1740). Today this is interpreted to mean that Linnaeus did not have a specimen of the species in 1753 and the specimen that is in his herbarium is more recent. In addition, the plant does not correspond to the species description from the first edition of the Species Plantarum and must be assigned to the species Capsicum annuum . As a result, the herbarium from Van Roy's herbarium is regarded as a lectotype . However, Linné continues to refer to his own earlier descriptions, which in turn are now also assigned to the species Capsicum annuum . In later editions of the Species Plantarum , further descriptions by other authors of the species are assigned, which, however, often also refer to Capsicum annuum or Capsicum baccatum .
Even after Linnaeus, the species description of Capsicum frutescens was often changed and many names that are considered synonymous today were described, so that it is often not possible to say with certainty which type of publications referred to.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ William G. D'Arcy: Family 170: Solanaceae. In: Robert E. Woodson, Jr., Robert W. Schery (Eds.): Flora of Panama, Part IX, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Volume 60, Number 3, 1973. pp. 573-780.
- ^ Charles B. Heiser Jr. and Barbara Pickersgill: Names for the Cultivated Capsicum Species (Solanaceae). In: Taxon , Volume 18, Number 3, June 1969. pp. 277-283. doi : 10.2307 / 1218828
