Well, having asked about whether it was too late to plant them at the beginning of May, my Bolivian ulupica stands 65-70cm tall has just branched and has some buds. I'm still not sure what it is though :D
It's tall & thin
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0135.jpg)
It doesn't have particularly hairy leaves,
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0142.jpg)
Has 5 longish calyx teeth
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0137.jpg)
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0141.jpg)
The seeds were light brown. And though you can't really see it in the photos the buds make me think the flowers will be pale (I think they'll be open in within a couple of weeks and should help a lot, but I thought I'd share my progress so far).
(btw, I have a 2nd plant and some rocotos to get fruit as I think cardenasii are not self compatible?)
Nice plant!
At least large ulupica is self-compatible. Post pics of opened flowed flowers when possible.
The 1st flower started opening yesterday & I went a bit nuts on the photos...
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0161.jpg)
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0166.jpg)
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0170.jpg)
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0174.jpg)
And here's a couple fully open
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0175.jpg)
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0179-1.jpg)
It's got longish calyx teeth and one yellow & two green spots clearly divided. The seeds were posted from Bolivia.
I also took one of the seeds from the pack this grew from (these are already promised), some Ulupica Large and some C. praetermissum (Cap 1478 and Cumari Pollux) Its seeds are darker than the other praetermissums, though it's hard to see in the photo
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0177.jpg)
I'm still not sure what it is :D
(either c.cardenasii or c.baccatum var. praetermissum ?)
Having looked at Lee's article on C.Cardenasii/C.Eximium (http://www.fatalii.net/growing/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=96) my flowers do look a lot like the c.cardenasii there.
I also saw he'd got pictures of the back of the flower, so here we go:
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/DSC_0181-1.jpg)
Nice stuff there!!
Still wondering that it could be possible that Ulupica large could be an early ancestor for all C. pubes... :)
Thanks, I'm finding these types much more fun than the cayenne types I've grown before!!
I suspect that there's been so much back and forth between wild ulupica, semi-cultivated ulupica and locoto that they've all got bits of each other... and the ancestral ones are long gone. But then I know little about plant biology so could easily be completely wrong :D
However, that's not to say that ulupica large isn't an interesting type!
I'm currently growing these 'wild' Bolivian ulupicas, a couple of ulupica large (I got from you :)) and a couple of red rocotos. When flowers are available I'll probably have a go at crossing them and see whether they are compatible & how viable the seeds are (At the moment, my rocotos have kinda stopped as they've got pods and my ulupica large hasn't started yet).
Hmm... that's what I used to think before too...
Ulupica Large has came much more interesting for me than it ever has been so far!
Best of all, it's very interesting to grow. :)
Here are the pods. The largest is about 7mm. They are in clusters of 2,3, or 4 pods
(http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/abraidwood/ulupicapods.jpg)
Looks like a wilder ulupica than some after all :)
Looks definitely worth growing!
I am also growing what looksl ike a similar variety. Also came from Bolivia with identical label. It sprouted rather quick and the seedling looking kinda hairy. Did yours look like this?
(http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/mentalap/DSC_0140.jpg)
(http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/mentalap/DSC_0150.jpg)
Certainly looks pretty similar to me!
There was some hairiness on the leaves of my seedling which made me think it wasn't c. cardenasii, but the plant developed to be normal.
did you get them off ebay?
yeah they sure came from ebay.
Decent germination rates too, only issue was they get moldy very easily.
Did those pods taste any good by the way? Is this variety self-compatible?
Hmmm... Shouldn't be the seeds of C. cardenasii black?
Nope, they are white, sometimes a bit darker than many other white seeds. Large ulupica has darker seeds.
I used them green as recommended & found they were fairly hot and had a taste & smell of green tomatoes (which is apparently correct for c.cardenasii)
Not sure about self compatibility, it certainly set pods & had ok looking seeds, but have not tried growing any more yet (though have sent some out with a warning).