Species library › Capsicum › Capsicum annuum
Edibles Well documented

Capsicum annuum

Pepper

The species that gives most garden peppers, from bell peppers to jalapeños and cayenne, domesticated in Mexico about 6000 years ago. Its wild form, the chiltepin (var. glabriusculum), is a long-lived shrub from the southern United States through Mexico and Central America to northern South America. Despite the name, it is a frost-tender perennial that can live for years if kept above freezing.

Capsicum annuum
Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

The wild chiltepin grows in scrub, dry forest edges and desert washes, often under nurse shrubs that give partial shade, in well-drained silty or sandy loams. In wetter regions it grows in broken forest canopy. Cultivated forms are grown in full sun.

Mostly lowland to mid elevations. The 9 GBIF records with an elevation span 111–2078 m, median 1043 m, but most measured records are from lowland Texas.

Southern United StatesMexicoCentral AmericaCaribbeanNorthern South America

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Capsicum annuum? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its Public domain licence, unmodified.