Experiment

[JohnF]

have several plants inside that have never been outside. One of them is Ulupica de Bolivia which flowered but did not set fruit. I then tried transferring pollen between blossoms using a small brush. Again no pod set. Next try was using pollen from C. baccatums. Again no pods. I am now using several others, marking the flowers with colored thread: C. eximium, 2 C. pubescens, and Cobincho. It appears two using the C. eximium and one using C. pubescens have set pods. I will continue the process as new blossoms appear.  Of course, at this point, I don't know that they haven't simply self pollinated and it will take a grow out to see what I get.

[cmpman1974]

John,

Are you growing them under normal fluorescents or just putting them in natural sunlight?

Chris

[JohnF]

Hi Chris

They are growing in the glassed in ( south facing)  area off the kitchen ( supposed to be a dining area but it's always full of plants) with just natural light. The don't get as much light as they would outside or in a real greenhouse but they do ok. I have even managed to overwinter plants there even with short Maine days.

[JohnF]

As the experiment continues I have finally got some ripe pods.

The largest of the Ulupica X eximium



The largest and the two smaller.



Ulupica x pubescens--didn't catch this until it started to dry



There are a couple more green pods from flowers pollinated from C. eximium. None of the other pubescens pollinated flowers or flowers left alone have formed pods

[Aji Inferno]

Interesting experiments! What is also interesting is that there are "natural" versions of c.eximium x c.pubescens growing wild in Bolivia. Some are very old and thus already true wild forms. That explains some of the chaos around all these plants, but still one big question remains open...

Since c.eximium/cardenasii has only one clear relative, cultivated c.pubescens (& all their crossed forms), where on Earth did eximium/cardenasii develop from..? There are no clear links to anywhere...

Still, there might well be a relationship between c.baccatum var. praetermissum and c.eximium/cardenasii. So, crossing experiments between those species would be interesting...

Of course, we still don't know a lot about c.eximium var. tomentosum and c.baccatum var. umbilicatum. Lots of work for us to do in our home labs in the future! ;-)

[JohnF]

I plan to grow several of the wild species this winter to try more crosses.

[JohnF]

Started winter project and these are the ones I will play with

[Aji Inferno]

Things are developing fast now, and to unexpected directions...

Very recent research from Brazil has confirmed that the origin of chile peppers appears to be among the species with 26 chromosomes (i.e. c.ciliatum/rhomboideum). What's also interesting is that practically all the "Brazilean capsicums" seem to share this chromosome number of 26.

This divides capsicum into 2 separated, non-crossing evolutionary lines with only 2 (known) bridge-species: c.flexuosum and c.parvifolium...

There are also 5..8 totally new, unclassified capsicums around, from South-East Brazil. Thanks to Luca for this info!

The new Wild Chiles section of Inferno is almost completed now, and will offer all this latest information, including rather detailed descriptions of almost all the (this far) known capsicums.

[luca]

The new Wild Chiles section of Inferno is almost completed now, and will offer all this latest information, including rather detailed descriptions of almost all the (this far) known capsicums.

Excellent! This is the web page I've been most anxiously waiting for on the Internet!

[JohnF]

Aji Inferno

Very impressive work on the wild pepper page. I will be pleased if it is all translated one day.

Can you tell me anything about C. baccatum var. umbilicatum? I am not familiar with that one. And do you know of a seed sorce?

[Aji Inferno]

Aji Inferno

Very impressive work on the wild pepper page. I will be pleased if it is all translated one day.

Can you tell me anything about C. baccatum var. umbilicatum? I am not familiar with that one. And do you know of a seed sorce?

What you see now on that page is just "old News"... The whole section has been completely re-written, 100% in English this time. The new version would have been online by now, but some critical new information required more work. I hope to be able to finish it this weekend, if possible.

Umbilicatum is one of the least known varieties, together with c.eximium var. tomentosum. What is known is that it has a very short stigma. I hope to have access to some seeds during the next months, but we'll see.

[JohnF]

What do you make of this?
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1392910

[Aji Inferno]

What do you make of this?
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1392910

I have actually grown it some years ago. The end result wasn't even a baccatum, but a strange sort of a chinense. Or so it at least seemed... Then again, way back then it was categorized as a "normal" c.baccatum and thus I didn't really investigate it that well.

I find it a bit strange if umbilicatum turns out to be "just another" domesticated baccatum type. Hunziker & others probably wouldn't have named it as a subspecies if this was the case, but it's hard to tell. Somehow I'd still think (or perhaps hope) that the real one is a wild species, and the one behind your link just another of USDA's many misnamings. Any experience from others?