Capsicum annuum
The most widely grown species - jalapeño, cayenne, Padrón, bell peppers and many Thai chillies. Usually one white flower per node and quicker to fruit, which suits a UK season. 'Annuum' means annual; it isn't.
Capsicum annuum is the species most people have eaten without knowing its name: bell peppers, jalapeño, cayenne, Padrón, paprika, most Thai and Indian cooking chillies and nearly all the ornamentals. It is by a wide margin the most grown species in the world, and the best represented in the Index.
The name is wrong
Annuum means annual, and chillies are not annuals. They are short-lived perennials, grown as annuals in Britain because frost kills them. Keep one frost-free over winter and it crops again the following year, earlier and more heavily.
Recognising it
- One flower per node, usually, where chinense often carries several.
- White petals, without the blotches of baccatum or the purple of pubescens.
- No collar at the base of the pod, unlike the pinched ring on a chinense.
Treat these as tendencies rather than a test. Annuum, chinense and frutescens are close relatives that overlap in appearance, the awkward cases are real, and a confident identification usually needs the flower, the plant and the variety's history together.
Why it suits a British season
Annuum is the practical choice here. It germinates quickly and evenly, usually inside a fortnight, and many varieties run from sowing to ripe fruit well within one UK summer. If a chinense has defeated you, this is where to start again.
Species tells you almost nothing about heat, though. Annuum spans a sweet bell pepper at zero and a cayenne in the tens of thousands of Scoville units. Use the variety entry, not the species name.
Compare Capsicum chinense and C. frutescens, its closest relatives and the usual source of confusion.
