"Mariwiri" from Guyana

[MelT]

One of the three chile varieties from Guyana growing here needs some introduction.  It is an
attractive C. chinense with round fruits like small cherries on a low spreading plant with
small leaves.  I think it's potentially one of the most ornamental chiles:


The original collector's records called it "Marawiri", which remained a bit of a mystery, but I
read that "meri wiri" or "mari wiri" are used in Guyana for the variety (or varieties) also
called "wiri wiri".   However, this variety seems closer to plants called "Bod'e" than "wiri-wiri",
or at least than to the one "wiri-wiri" variety I now have from a different source.

Like the Bod'e shown at
http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=19,
"Mariwiri" has pale-colored anthers [unusual in C. chinense].  Unlike it, the fruits of this one
are on erect stalks:


I thought it might be interesting to cross it as a primitive chinense with the
somewhat similar C. chinense "Wild Brazil".   

"Mariwiri" and "Wild Brazil" fruit comparison:


"Wild Brazil X Mariwiri" F1 plant


Hybrid fruit comparision [I didn't grow any "Mariwiri" in 2009]


I also crossed "Mariwiri" with "Duke Pequin", which made an intermediate-sized plant:

Fruits ripen red.

New 2009 crosses growing this season:
Duke Pequin X Wild Brazil
Duke Pequin X Wiri Wiri [the latter seems more like C. frutescens than C. chinense
to me]

Duke Pequin X Pimenta da Neyde 
Trinidad Scorpion X Pimenta da Neyde

It appears that the purple coloration may be a dominant trait-- so far, F1 seedlings of
both these crosses are coming up just as pigmented as Pimenta da Neyde seedlings!

Fatalii X Bhut Jolokia
Trinidad Scorpion X Bhut Jolokia  [I suppose these might count as "weapons of mass
destruction"]

[Fatalii]

Again... wow man... especially looking forward to see results of the pimenta da neyde crosses!

[MelT]

I thought I'd add an image of the flower of "mariwiri".
It is unusual for C. chinense in that the stamens and anthers are pale instead of darkly pigmented:


The "Bod'e" illustrated
http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=19
http://www.thechileman.org/results.php?find=bode&heat=Any&origin=Any&genus=Chinense&chile=1&submit=Search
are perhaps related because of their similar flowers, but the erect flowers and fruits of "Mariwiri"
are more primitive.

[varg]

I'm growing now a C.chinense chile pepper called Roberto's Cuban Seasoning and it has pale stamens and anthers too (I am not sure it is a 100% genuine C.chinense variety):