pod Chile Rayado Species?

[macmex]

My family lived in Central Mexico from about 1988 until 2001 and I used to go back down for a couple weeks a year, until 2010. For the last 8 plus years we lived there, we lived in the State of Hidalgo. The pepper which seemed most in demand in our local market was called Rayado, which in Spanish refers to the cracking or stripes on the mature fruit. This pepper was grown in a region called "la Huesteca," kind of a lowland/foothills zone, alone the Gulf Coast. Chile Rayado was native here and not grown in our town, which was at 5,000' altitude I tried for years to get seed of this pepper, but the only ones sold in the market had been smoked for chipotle and did not contain viable seeds. A German consortium of gourmets made some kind of agreement with regional farmers, who then formed a large co-op to grow and process this pepper. Some started seedlings, many grew them and few did the entire process from seed to fruit and back to seed. I failed in getting seed, and after a couple years I stopped trying.

After moving back to the USA I went back for a couple weeks a year to teach, and one year, a student, who picked up on my love of seeds, came in and handed me a sandwich bag with a fist full of Chile Rayado seed! I took it back to Oklahoma with me and have grown this pepper ever since.

Though the peppers resemble a Jalapeño they tend to be much hotter than that. Also, the leaves, stems which hold the pods and flowers don't much resemble that of a c. annuum, in my opinion. I've never had it cross with any other pepper, but I have kept it a very safe distance from c. annuums. It's grown right alongside c. chinese with nary a cross. I don't know what species it comes from? Would any of you?

Here's a link to a thread on this pepper, with much more detail. Green Country Seed Savers: Chile Rayado

 

[Bou]

You know, I've never noticed purple on the flower petals, but then again, I haven't paid that close attention. Hopefully the peppers will be true to type. This year I found my first cross in Chile Rayado.

 
Macmex, here's an example of the purple tint present on some flowers. Peppers also show darker undertones near the calyx:

 

[CaneDog]

I haven't seen any antho in the flowers on the rayado during my limited experience growing it (seeds from macmex - thanks!).  Then again, until just yesterday I hadn't seen any sign of it in lemon spice jalapeno flowers, either. 
 
From what I've seen, it's not uncommon that certain varieties may show no antho in the flowers during the heat of summer, but the early and late season flowers show a tinge. Even with varieties that always show some amount of purple in the flowers, it often seems that amount is greater toward the shoulder seasons and cooler weather than during the heat of summer.
 
Just a thought, but maybe it isn't a cross; perhaps there are simply some genes present in low distribution within the population and/or that express themselves only under certain environmental conditions.
 
Lemon Spice - Seeds were directly from the Sandia bag.

 

[Bou]

I haven't seen any antho in the flowers on the rayado during my limited experience growing it (seeds from macmex - thanks!).  Then again, until just yesterday I hadn't seen any sign of it in lemon spice jalapeno flowers, either. 
 
From what I've seen, it's not uncommon that certain varieties may show no antho in the flowers during the heat of summer, but the early and late season flowers show a tinge. Even with varieties that always show some amount of purple in the flowers, it often seems that amount is greater toward the shoulder seasons and cooler weather than during the heat of summer.
 
Just a thought, but maybe it isn't a cross; perhaps there are simply some genes present in low distribution within the population and/or that express themselves only under certain environmental conditions.
 
Lemon Spice - Seeds were directly from the Sandia bag.
 

 
Great infos CaneDog, thanks!

 

[macmex]

That sure looks like a pure Rayado to me, Bo. I wouldn't think twice if I had that one in my garden. Canedog is probably correct about variations which naturally occur in varieties. Rayado may have had more selection than some, due to the heavy focus they have put on its commercial production, but I can almost guarantee that back in the day, there was much variation in it. 
 
By the way, I had my first planting of Chile Rayado in a secondary garden, which I maintain on my daughter's property. That garden became overgrown with weeds and I spent much of this last weekened cleaning things up. I found at least four of those pepper plants, as I worked. The first, which I found over a week ago, struck me as a cross. That light green color just didn't fit with Chile Rayado. My heart sank, as I didn't like the idea of having to clean up the seed stock. This weekend, however I uncovered three more of that planting, two of which have fruit on them. They are all identical; identically different from Chile Rayado. This tells me I don' t have a cross, but rather that I mixed up my seed packets.
 
One or two folk from The Hot Pepper Forum had sent me pepper seeds as we corresponded about Chile Rayado. I can't recall the name of one of those varieties, and don't have my records on hand at the moment, but I want to say it was something like Luisa, another Mexican pepper, similar to a serrano, but meatier. I wanted to grow that one out. Makes me wonder if I didn't start that seed and then forget, labeling it Chile Rayado?
 
Here's a picture of what all of those plants are producing. I tasted one and it has a very pleasing flavor and is pretty hot (by my standards). It's a nice pepper, but definitely not Chile Rayado.
 

 
I did several starts of Rayado, from differing batches of seed. In my may garden I have a late planting of Chile Rayado, which I hope will be true to type.

 

[kentishman]

Hi macmex,

In your last post you said:

One or two folk from The Hot Pepper Forum had sent me pepper seeds as we corresponded about Chile Rayado. I can't recall the name of one of those varieties, and don't have my records on hand at the moment, but I want to say it was something like Luisa, another Mexican pepper, similar to a serrano, but meatier. I wanted to grow that one out. Makes me wonder if I didn't start that seed and then forget, labeling it Chile Rayado?

I believe you are referring to the Sinahuisa seeds I sent you. Here’s a little info.

Sinahuisa

Capsicum annuum. From a Mayo ejido (communal farm) in Sonora. The fruit are very fleshy and similar to serranos. They are excellent en escabeche (pickled). Plants can grow to about 3.5 feet. Good for container gardening and extremely high-yielding. From our Seed-Bank Collection. Origin: low...

www.nativeseeds.org

I have two nice plants from the Rayado seeds you sent me. They are producing plenty of pods. I cut a sliver from the tip end of a ripe red one and popped it in my mouth but not for long. Immediate intense burn! I didn’t realize it would be so hot.

 

[macmex]

Hi macmex,

In your last post you said:

One or two folk from The Hot Pepper Forum had sent me pepper seeds as we corresponded about Chile Rayado. I can't recall the name of one of those varieties, and don't have my records on hand at the moment, but I want to say it was something like Luisa, another Mexican pepper, similar to a serrano, but meatier. I wanted to grow that one out. Makes me wonder if I didn't start that seed and then forget, labeling it Chile Rayado?

I believe you are referring to the Sinahuisa seeds I sent you. Here’s a little info.

Sinahuisa

Capsicum annuum. From a Mayo ejido (communal farm) in Sonora. The fruit are very fleshy and similar to serranos. They are excellent en escabeche (pickled). Plants can grow to about 3.5 feet. Good for container gardening and extremely high-yielding. From our Seed-Bank Collection. Origin: low...

www.nativeseeds.org

I have two nice plants from the Rayado seeds you sent me. They are producing plenty of pods. I cut a sliver from the tip end of a ripe red one and popped it in my mouth but not for long. Immediate intense burn! I didn’t realize it would be so hot.

I finally figured that out and didn't remember to mention it here. Obviously, the pepper in the photo isn't Sinahuisa. I should have those seeds in my froze cache.

I brought one of the "off type peppers" into the house and showed my wife. She tasted it and swore it had to be Rayado, as it tasted just like it. It does taste just like it. Also, the plants look just like it. Now, I'm getting ripe peppers on them and most of them look just like Chile Rayado. Here's a photo of a really good one.

Here's a photo of one that's not so great. I suspect I just need to be selecting for the correct type, and that the "different" pepper was a result of degeneration of the line.

 

[kentishman]

Here are peppers on my plants.

 

[macmex]

Those look great!

 

[kentishman]

A couple more pics.

 

[macmex]

That looks like a gorgeous crop!

 

[Marturo]

It's not often we find a pepper with so much history. This reads like an adventure that had a very happy ending.
Thanks to @Bou for seeds, I started growing the Chili Rayado in 22 & what a plant, it's a gorgeous & very toxic looking plant.
It's not real big & it's branches tend to be Trepideria like & may need a tie for support as the pods get larger.

This Jalapeño is the hottest one I have tasted yet & it's best used for smoking as the Horseshoe Hot Wheels we canned
will do way more than one pizza LOL.


Here are some pics of Chili Rayado from my 22 grow.

 

[RobStar]

I grew Rayado again last year after about a five or six year hiatus - I have lots of varieties to renew every year!
As chance would have it this year I grew out Goat's Weed, Bolivian Rainbow, a delightful little hottie called Petit Piment Rouge from Isle de Reunion or in the local Creole dialect tipiment (sound's kinda like teepimah) as well as Yellow BrainStrain and Bhut Jolokia.
I also have a ten plus year old tepins (just over 6 feet tail). And then I noticed something - all the anuum were actually Capsicum anuum var. glabriusculum.
The foliage of Chile Rayado is identical to Goat's Weed. All var glabriusculum have small flowers with crook-necked pedicels.
So it is most certainly not a jalapeno - that is anuum var anuum - downward curving pedicels and large flowers.

 

[Bou]

@RobStar completely off-topic question here but are you Neil's brother by any chance?

 

[RobStar]

@Bou yip I am. I got him into growing in 2013 when I asked him to grow all my superhots for me as we had a three year old daughter with a penchant for putting brightly coloured things in her mouth!

 

[Bou]

@Bou yip I am. I got him into growing in 2013 when I asked him to grow all my superhots for me as we had a three year old daughter with a penchant for putting brightly coloured things in her mouth!

!! them kids

I don't know your brother much but we've talked about pepper stuff a few times on FB and Messenger over the last few years. (a very cool dude if you ask).

Nice to know you too Mr. Jangle senior!