Native Capsicum?

[Auxin]

Are there any Capsicum species native to Australia? If so, are there any good hot rare ones that you know of? If so, where would I find the seeds? I want to breed a hybrid that represents every continent on earth (except Antarctica of course), so far I have ones from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Asia will be easy, but i've never heard of Australian ones. Any info will be helpful. Red ones are best (more vitamin A & C).

Thanks

Ok, I'm told I mis-spoke. There are no truly native species anywhere but in the americas, it is an introduced plant everywhere else. What I want is a purely australian variety of C. chinese (prefered), C. annuum, or C. baccatum. I am also told that my best bet would be New South Wales.

[This message has been edited by Auxin (edited 20 May 2002).]

[Ed Dunkel]

I was just going to say, capsicums are really only from the Americas. They were introduced to Europe, Africa, Asia etc.. were people added them to their local dishes for added flavour and colour. Substituting things like peppers.

The thing with red ones is (correct me if I'm wrong) that they are just matured green ones. Some just take longer to mature. I though I had a long green chilli plant only to find out that it just took nearly a month to actually ripen to a red chilli. The others would go from yellow to red or green to red in days.

People use red or green ones because their flavours are different (in indian curries the red also adds to the colouring).

Red ones do contain more vit A & C but both contain good amounts of iron.

[waterdragon]

i have a type of chill called masquerade. the fruit is purple for a while and changes to red on ripening. got a few birdseye spare as well, and some other nameless type with a funny shape (not habanero/bell shaped) nor slender. if any of that serves some purpose for ye let me know. for capsicums and chillies - especially rare varieties u should seek out 'the diggers club'

[Auxin]

"I was just going to say, capsicums are really only from the Americas."- Ed Dunkel

Correct thats why I corrected myself and said an Australian variety. When Capsicums are introduced to a new reigon they mutate/evolve into new varieties fast. Capsicums now grow on every continent except Antarctica. I guess I put this in the wrong forum.

Also correct is that the green ones are just immature, however the mature ones can be red, orange, purple, yellow, white, etc.

OH, just in case Torsten reads this I have found the answer to why americans call capsicum fruits peppers: Christopher Columbus. All his lies are perpetuated every generation- When he came over here he was looking for a source for black pepper, the closest he found was some red capsicums so the fool named it 'black pepper' and took it back to the queen. Well being red they dropped the black and just called 'em peppers. If that sounds too far out to be the truth remember this is the guy who was looking for India when he found the americas, it was clear that this wasn't India, but he called it India and to this day the Native Americans are refered to as Indians (When you catch an American doin' this, ask 'em what they call people from India, I have never got a good answer.)

[Torsten]

Thanks auxin, that makes good sense (on your part, not on columbus')

[Darklight]

Might want to place an and looking for heirloom varieties at the Seedsaver's Network. They've been keeping tabs on this sort of thing in many many edible species for at least 20 years and have access to some very old, rare and/or unusual varieties

http://www.seedsavers.net/

Check the site out, there's a place you can link content from, I'm sure you'll find something