kriyamanna wrote:
> John‰]wrote:
>
>
>>The chile pequin (also rendered as chiltecpin, chiltipin, and chile
>>petín) is a small berry-like pepper which grows on a rather pretty
>>little green bush, although older plants can get as tall as a man. It
>>is indigenous from South Texas to South America, where it apparently
>>originated. Biologists believe that the pequin was in fact the
>>original chile, from which all other Capsicum varieties derive,
>>including Bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos, etc.
>
>
> Here's a researcher that really did a nice job of sorting out peppers
> and chiles all over the world:
>
> http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/...?Caps_ann.html
>
Excellent page. My variety is about half way down the page. I have
snipped his definition. The picture of the flower and tepin on his page
are exactly what I have in the back yard.

Chile tepín, flower and ripe fruit
It is, however, difficult to explain (i) how the chiltepín could have
travelled from its diversification locus (Amazonas basin) that far into
the North without human help, and (ii) why all early records of chile
cultivation point to Central and Southern México, never to the North. So
the chiltepín is more probably a cultivar that has escaped back into the
wild, not an original wild form. The chiltepín is quite hot and can be
fiercily hot; it is much used for North Mexican cuisine and has quite
recently established itself on the US market, fueled by the large number
of Mexican immigrants and the general interest in Mexican and other
spicy food. It should be noticed that the tepín is still a wild plant,
and all of the crop is collected from the wild. So far, all attempts for
cultivation in commercial scale have failed.

Other experts have speculated on the fact that birds have brought the
pepper to this region. I am not sure why this guy has not concluded
that. It's a no brainer when you see how ferociously the birds enjoy the
fruit. I have cardinals constantly feeding on my bush. And now I have
discovered that Parrots crave the little fruits! I'll let you know in
about 3 to 4 months if the bird theory is a winner.