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Uvilla Grande chile

BrendanPicante

BrendanPicante

Hey fellow chileheads..! I've been on the hunt for just over a year now for the elusive Uvilla Grande chile, specifically the Chinense one. 
 
I first saw it, of course, in Jean Andrews classic book Peppers, The Domesticated Capsicums. The picture intrigued me and I went on a Google search for it. Using the USDA numbers she gave, as well as contacting a pepper researcher in the big Georgia station, I was able to pinpoint PI 188477 with relative ease. After a bit of back and forth I even got the USDA to send me some seeds! It turns out these are a Frutescens, and not anything like what I found in the book. Plus, these are infected with the PMMoV, so I decided I wouldn't even germinate them.
 
I found an image of the one I am looking for buried in a ten year old post from Reimer Seeds so I contacted them. They said they would see what they could do. Well, they ended up finding the same ones I did because they mentioned that the seeds have Mottle and they don't have them this year (2016). 
 
So, basically, I have no idea where to find this chile. Has anyone here grown it? I'm starting to doubt it's even real haha!
 
I have no photo site stuff so I have no image today. My apologies. If you google "Uvilla Grande Pepper" an image comes up of yellow pods with a ruler in the image. Thats about the best I can do right now...
 
 
Its a shame that the Griffin station has such an issue with viruses. I think you should try to germinate anyway.  Viruses aren't ALWAYS passed to seed, so if you can get any fruit set you might be able to recover virus-free seeds.
 
Or if you want... I could try to coach you through meristem-culture?
 
 
I'm a little confused: How did you originally come to PI188477 in the first place? and why did you change your mind about this being the correct PI?
 
Gorizza said:
Its a shame that the Griffin station has such an issue with viruses. I think you should try to germinate anyway.  Viruses aren't ALWAYS passed to seed, so if you can get any fruit set you might be able to recover virus-free seeds.
 
Or if you want... I could try to coach you through meristem-culture?
 
 
I'm a little confused: How did you originally come to PI188477 in the first place? and why did you change your mind about this being the correct PI?
Click to expand...
 
PI 188-477 is the number Jean Andrews had in her book, so I looked that up. That's the seed that the station sent to me. After looking further into it the pods in their photo are not what was desired by me. In her revised edition from 1995 she states "The seed for the plant illustrated in Plate 33 was number 188-477 from the U.S. Southern Regional Plant Introduction Station in Experiment, Georgia, and was listed as C. frutescens, however, it is not." 
 
The reason she wanted to grow it was because in 1951 it was a plant that helped Drs. Smith and Heiser determine that annuum and frutescens are different species. When she got a hold of them 30 years after that they had no seed left so she went to the USDA and "what you see is what I got" 
 
Basically, she was given the wrong seed and that's the pods I want. I've only see one photo even close to what she had and it's the one with yellow pods that I mentioned in the original post. 
 
It seems this whole search is from a USDA mistake almost 40 years ago..! 
 
The Hot Pepper didn't let me post a photo from Photobucket otherwise this would all be easier for me to describe.
 
Also, after all this, even I don't know why I am so fixated on these pods. They're probably just a decent chinense and nothing to write home about. It's just crazy that I looked at one picture of a painting of one plant that turned out to be an accident and this huge mystery unfolded. 
 
BrendanPicante said:
"The seed for the plant illustrated in Plate 33 was number 188-477 from the U.S. Southern Regional Plant Introduction Station in Experiment, Georgia, and was listed as C. frutescens, however, it is not." 
Click to expand...
 
"it is not" what does that mean?
 
It: the plant illustrated? frutescens? PI188477?
not [what]: the plant illustrated? frutescens? PI188477?
 
 
 
I really hope you get to the bottom of this.  If the seed that you got is the same seed she recieved, then is that not the plant that helped make the discovery?
 
No, you are searching for Uvilla Grande, and you have reason to believe that it isn't the same as the seed you got from griffin labelled PI188477.
 
 
This might be a lead: AVGRIS got the PI188477 seed from USDA back in 2006, which miiiight be prior to the viral contamination events. I know they increase seed more often than USDA.
http://seed.worldveg.org/search/view/passport/VI057375
 
 
Gorizza said:
 
"it is not" what does that mean?
 
It: the plant illustrated? frutescens? PI188477?
not [what]: the plant illustrated? frutescens? PI188477?
 
 
 
I really hope you get to the bottom of this.  If the seed that you got is the same seed she recieved, then is that not the plant that helped make the discovery?
 
No, you are searching for Uvilla Grande, and you have reason to believe that it isn't the same as the seed you got from griffin labelled PI188477.
 
 
This might be a lead: AVGRIS got the PI188477 seed from USDA back in 2006, which miiiight be prior to the viral contamination events. I know they increase seed more often than USDA.
http://seed.worldveg.org/search/view/passport/VI057375
 
Click to expand...
 
 
Yes, whatever Dr. Andrews got was a Chinense and absolutely not what helped separate Annuum and Frutescens, so basically what did she get? The illustration is a clear Chinense, even Dr. Smith (who along with Dr. Heiser used the 188477 in 1951 to do the separation) said to her in correspondence that what she received was not what he had grown.  
 
Just like everything else chile, there's more questions than answers! 
 
I think the 188477 that Georgia Station has is actually what Smith and Heiser had in 1951, but what Dr. Andrews grew in the early 1980s was not and whomever sent her the seed at that time made a mistake. 
 
BrendanPicante said:
I think the 188477 that Georgia Station has is actually what Smith and Heiser had in 1951
Click to expand...
 
But that means that the seed you have is probably the variety you were looking for, just contaminated with tobamovirus?
 
So we just need to cure your seed! its not impossible you know
 
Gorizza said:
 
But that means that the seed you have is probably the variety you were looking for, just contaminated with tobamovirus?
 
So we just need to cure your seed! its not impossible you know
Click to expand...
No, it's not. Going back to my original post, I have been curious about the Chinense that D. Andrews was given. I am not interested in the Frutescens. 
 
BrendanPicante said:
Hey fellow chileheads..! I've been on the hunt for just over a year now for the elusive Uvilla Grande chile, specifically the Chinense one. 
 
I first saw it, of course, in Jean Andrews classic book Peppers, The Domesticated Capsicums. The picture intrigued me and I went on a Google search for it. Using the USDA numbers she gave, as well as contacting a pepper researcher in the big Georgia station, I was able to pinpoint PI 188477 with relative ease. After a bit of back and forth I even got the USDA to send me some seeds! It turns out these are a Frutescens, and not anything like what I found in the book. Plus, these are infected with the PMMoV, so I decided I wouldn't even germinate them.
 
 
Click to expand...
 So, basically it just comes down to a pepper ID and those are so damn near impossible! I was just wondering if anyone else knew of this chile, or even the book. I know it's a hugely known classic in the pepper lore, but I've never met anyone that's read it. 
 
Thanks though, everybody. It seems I'll just wonder what Chinense she was given! 
 
BrendanPicante said:
No, it's not. Going back to my original post, I have been curious about the Chinense that D. Andrews was given. I am not interested in the Frutescens. 
Click to expand...
 
Hey sorry I've been having trouble with this.
 
So USDA sent out the wrong seed once, but it turned out to be a very interesting variety, crucial in the Jean Andrews research. But the seed was lost and now we can't get more from USDA because it was a mistake to begin with.
 
I'll keep an eye out!
 
And here's the illustration in case anyone ever comes across it!
 
4sEcK8W.jpg
 
This is the fruit shape I cannot seem to find. All the Uvillas, even all the ones everyone here are recommending, have a small, spherical shape. The one in this illustration I have only ever seen one photo of, and the pods were yellow. Mysteries.
 
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