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Pretty Peppers
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Miniature bell peppers change from
purple to orange as they mature.
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ARS scientists are fired up about spicy,
colorful new peppers. Geneticist John R. Stommel, with the ARS Vegetable
Laboratory, and collaborator Robert J. Griesbach, of the U.S. National
Arboretum's Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit, both located in
Beltsville, Maryland, have developed new ornamental and culinary pepper
breeding lines that are pungent or mild and pleasing to the eye. Since the
breeding program started in 1991, they have developed about 150 new ornamental
breeding lines. |
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Compact orange pepper plants
bear upright, pungent fruit.
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"These new lines—ranging from small Tabasco-type peppers and
miniature bells to large, orange, banana-shaped peppers—were developed
from a diverse collection of Capsicum landraces from India and select
heirloom peppers," says Stommel. "They were selected for fruit and
leaf characteristics and plant habit. We wanted showy, attractive plants for
ornamental use, culinary use, or both."
New breeding lines include bite-sized miniature bell peppers that are hot or
mild and are available in an array of colors. Some new lines have brilliant
purple foliage and produce hot-to-mild, yellow-to-red peppers on upright or
trailing plants from mid- to late summer. The peppers are relatively easy to
grow as container or landscape plants. |
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Dazzling dwarf ornamental pepper plant.
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The scientists are cooperating with the Pan American Seed Company to develop
and market these peppers for commercial use.—By
Tara
Weaver-Missick, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Plant, Microbial, and Insect Genetic Resources,
Genomics and Genetic Improvement, an ARS National Program (#301) described on
the World Wide Web at http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
John R. Stommel is with the
USDA-ARS Vegetable
Laboratory, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Building 010A, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD
20705; phone (301) 504-5583, fax (301) 504-5555. |
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"Pretty Peppers" was published in the
May 2001
issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
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Last Modified: 03/18/2005
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