CGN 21500 - Why do some peppers have no name?

b3rnd

b3rnd

For a while now, I've been wondering why some varieties don't have a name at all. Hybrids are names by their creators (Carolina Reaper), and others are landraces with local names (Bhut Jolokia). Then there are peppers that are discovered; some get a name (Pimenta da Neyde), but others get a code (CGN 21500). Why is this?
 
Do they ever get named or are we forever doomed to forget the codes they are given? It took me ages to get CGN 21500 to stick in my brain. It even 'belongs' to the Roxa variety group: Cheiro Roxa, Fidalgo Roxa, Cabaça Roxa, Bode Roxa. That's not good for my OCD. I started calling it Abóbora Roxa (purple pumpkin, because it reminds me of a pumpkin), and that made me wonder about this.
 
I know the codes refer to seed banks, but I'd like to know why they don't get names after a while. Does anyone know?
 
 
 
Translations for the other Roxas:
 
Cheiro Roxa - Purple Fragrance
Fidalgo Roxa - Purple Gentleman (a fidalgo was some kind of young nobleman)
Cabaça Roxa - Purple Gourd
Bode Roxa - Purple Goat (why do so many peppers refer to goats anyway?)
 
 
Apparently goats have a musty aroma that reminds people of certain peppers. I don't get it myself but I'll take any name over a pseudo-random assortment of letters and numbers.
Abóbora Roxa sounds good to me but can you give a definitive pronunciation for it?
 
I have wondered that myself. I just assumed that the ones with only an accession number were just not common enough to get a name that stuck. Or maybe people are finding it difficult to come up with original names for everything. "Purple Pumpkin", for instance, is already taken.  ;)
 
b3rnd said:
 
Do they ever get named or are we forever doomed to forget the codes they are given? It took me ages to get CGN 21500 to stick in my brain. 
 
 
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Yes, many peppers have both names and accession numbers, Some even have multiple names and multiple accession numbers from different seed banks. 
 
Balloon, Pimenta Cambuci,Campane, Monks Cap, Chapeau de Farde, Peri Peri, Ubatuba Cambuci, Aji Flor, Christmas Bell, Orchid, and PI497974 are all alternate names for Bishop's Crown. Even better, some of them (like Peri Peri) are also names for different pepper varieties as well. How does your OCD like that?  :lol: 
 
As for CGN21500, maybe we should actually be thankful that it has just the one designation for us to remember.  :) 
 
spicefreak said:
Apparently goats have a musty aroma that reminds people of certain peppers. I don't get it myself but I'll take any name over a pseudo-random assortment of letters and numbers.
Abóbora Roxa sounds good to me but can you give a definitive pronunciation for it?
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I haven't tasted enough 'goat' peppers to have an opinion on that, but I haven't noticed similarities between Goat's Peppers and Bahamian Goats. It's interesting though, I wonder why would they describe a musky aroma as goat-like. Surely they don't actually smell alike, lol.
 
Abóbora is pronounced ah-bOh-bo-ruh, stressing the first O. The pronunciation differs a bit from Brazilian Portuguese to European Portuguese, though I think the Brazilian one is more suitable in this case. You can put stuff into Google Translate and click the speaker icon in the lower left corner to make them pronounce it if you're ever wondering about other words!
 
Fun fact: A lot of websites refer to the Cabaça Roxa as 'Cabaca', but that changes the pronunciation. The ç is an S-sound: ka-baa-sa.
 
 
BlackFatalii said:
I have wondered that myself. I just assumed that the ones with only an accession number were just not common enough to get a name that stuck. Or maybe people are finding it difficult to come up with original names for everything. "Purple Pumpkin", for instance, is already taken.  ;)
 
 
Yes, many peppers have both names and accession numbers, Some even have multiple names and multiple accession numbers from different seed banks. 
 
Balloon, Pimenta Cambuci,Campane, Monks Cap, Chapeau de Farde, Peri Peri, Ubatuba Cambuci, Aji Flor, Christmas Bell, Orchid, and PI497974 are all alternate names for Bishop's Crown. Even better, some of them (like Peri Peri) are also names for different pepper varieties as well. How does your OCD like that?  :lol:
 
As for CGN21500, maybe we should actually be thankful that it has just the one designation for us to remember.  :)
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Yeah, I knew that, but Purple Pumpkin is in English so it differs enough to not be confusing I think. The Portuguese name references where it comes from and plays into its Roxa-relatives. Anyway, I'm not trying to name the pepper officially. It's just what I call it myself.
 
I completely agree with you on the Bishop's Hat Crown. The multiple name thing is very confusing, it definitely took me a while to figure out that they were one and the same pepper. I was so puzzled why they all looked so alike, lol.
 
I have to say though, piri-piri or peri-peri literally means pepper-pepper in Bantu languages (an African language group). Portugal had a colony in Mozambique and they took over the word. The word then travelled over to Brazil. So it's not that surprising that so many peppers get that name. It kinda comes down to the simplistic thinking of some 'lesser developed' areas: "It's spicy? It's a pepper". When I was in Portugal they referred to all my plants as pimentos, piripíris or malaguetas. It's all kinda the same for them.
 
b3rnd said:
 
I have to say though, piri-piri or peri-peri literally means pepper-pepper in Bantu languages (an African language group). Portugal had a colony in Mozambique and they took over the word. The word then travelled over to Brazil. So it's not that surprising that so many peppers get that name. It kinda comes down to the simplistic thinking of some 'lesser developed' areas: "It's spicy? It's a pepper". When I was in Portugal they referred to all my plants as pimentos, piripíris or malaguetas. It's all kinda the same for them.
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It's like saying your ophiophilist (had to look that up) neighbor keeps a couple "snakes".
 
CGN 21500 is well known as CGN 21500, so no other name needed.
 
Cheiro Roxa and Fidalgo or sometimes called Fidalga Roxa have been introduced much later and I couldn´t find anything about the history of the two varieties.
 
When I got a number of Brazilian accessions from the 

Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands
who is the origin of all CGN accessions,
most showed a high variation in shape and color.
 
This maybe a result of in house unwanted hybridazation between different accesions or the accesions source wasn´t clean (land races) and there was no further work on selection.
 
Peter
 
 
 
semillas said:
CGN 21500 is well known as CGN 21500, so no other name needed.
 
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I don't remember numbers nearly as well as names. Every time I see it I'm like "Ooh, it's that GCN one!" and then "Wait, is it that GCN one?", followed by some frantic googling.
If people ever start talking about a second GCN pepper it's going to be pretty rough for me. I would definitely prefer a real name.
 
I believe long ago goats were associated with satan and at some point long ago the heat in hot peppers was associated with hell. Seems no surprise lots of peppers have goat in the name.
 
I just figured the goat types were discovered by farmer's goats. Saw goats eating them and named them accordingly. Lol
 
In the Bahamas the goat peppers are supposedly to have an aroma of a wet goat. Also they are the pepper of choice when making goat curry or mutton griot.
 
spicefreak said:
 
I don't remember numbers nearly as well as names. Every time I see it I'm like "Ooh, it's that GCN one!" and then "Wait, is it that GCN one?", followed by some frantic googling.
If people ever start talking about a second GCN pepper it's going to be pretty rough for me. I would definitely prefer a real name.
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Yeah exactly. In this case, the pepper is pretty well-known, but there are a lot more examples of peppers with a number. If you're talking about CAP accessions for example, there are a shit ton of them. 
 
I'd even turn it around. When a pepper gets as popular and recognizable as the CGN 21500, it deserves a name. There's no need to name all the different wild strains like CAP 214, CAP 524 etc. because they don't have really distinct traits and characteristics. 
 
But in the end, I don't know. Because where do we draw the line exactly? It's definitely hard.
 
Think about when you name an account or character. That's time-consuming enough for me. I would hate to be repeatedly naming strain after strain. :P
 
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