PlantFiles: Pepper
Capsicum annuum 'Fish'

Gorgeous! I'm sticking this one in my flower border next year as well. I used a few for ceviche but would love some recipes for next year. I buzzed most of them for use as chile paste but I'd love to use them to their best advantage. Lots of peppers formed and the colors of them were beautiful.

I bought it by chance at my local seed supplier. They did really well in my garden though I, early on, got them mixed up with my 4 o'clock seedlings and they were interspersed in the flower garden. The variegated foliage looked right at home. The first pepper that I picked - fairly early - had almost no heat, but as they matured they became quite hot indeed even if they were not yet red.

Very attractive plant, exceptionally tasty peppers! The flavor has a clean, bright heat like a cayenne, but with the bonus of a sweetness that reminded us of a red bell pepper. We'll be growing this one every year -- no more 'Super Chile' for us!

The variagation on the leaves is striking. I saw white variagation on my seedlings when they had just 6 leaves. The vertical stripes on the peppers are really cute, too.

Another one of my favorites. I like to sun dry the pods and then powder them and mix my own spice blends. This was also one of my great-grandmother's favorites.

The lore on this heirloom pepper is that it was almost exclusively grown by African Americans in New England and was used to spice up oyster, crab, and other seafood dishes - hence the name "fish" pepper. I agree that it is a very attractive plant and is well suited for "showing off" - but don't forget to eat the peppers! My experience has been that the immature peppers are quite spicy, but if you allow the peppers to mature all the way to red (bright red!), the spice mellows out. Also, early foliage may not be variegated, but later foliage will be. In fact, the most recent foliage on my plant is almost all white. If the pepper pod is produced from the variegated foliage, the pod will also be variegated (meaning that earlier pods may be mostly green - but later pods may be mostly white). I haven't had any problems with this plant and have successfully grown it in a container. Even with only three hours of direct sun, it has been a steady producer of peppers and was very forgiving when underwatered one month. Although it is commonly thought of as "ornamental," the plant can reach upwards of two to three feet - maybe more if not in a container? This is one of my favorite peppers, and I highly recommend it.

The variegation of the leaves and fruit can differ from seed source to seed source. My seeds came from an heirloom collector in NC and the foliage didn't exhibit early stripes.

Very nice heat and I found it to make an excellent powder.

Beautiful and ornamental pepper. The fruits are quite hot and orange red with gold striping when ripe. Heirloom from The African American community of Philly/Baltimore. Pretty enough to put in the flower garden