China pepper, likely a popular one.

[Shandley]

Greetings,

in early April, a friend who does not speak english very well sent me 500 seeds from China. I've been pressing to get a species name from him but he cannot translate. He says they look like thai chillies. He says when ripe, they are red.

Here are a few photos. The plants are all about 4 months old and just starting to produce fruit.

Same pepper, only riper (1 month older than the pic above):

He sent me a photo of what they look like when fully ripe:

 

[hotpeppergirlalabama]

good looking plant.

do you have some seed you would sell?

 

[Jamison]

Very nice lookin plant. Not sure what the peppers are tho

 

[Shandley]

Thank you both. The plants are very hardy. Every seed germinated (20 or so) and none have seen any trouble at all.

@hotpeppergirlalabama: PM sent.

 

[ajijoe]

it looks just like chi chin or also pronounced chi thein it is one of the most widely used peppers in Chinese cooking and is in fact related to THAI peppers

thanks your friend Joe

 

[Shandley]

Interesting! I'll have to check them out.

Thanks!

 

[armac]

Bigger leaves than the Thai I am growing.

Pretty plant

 

[Shandley]

Thanks all!

I popped an unripe pepper from this plant into my mouth and WOW hot. My tongue is swollen! I can't wait until they ripen.

 

[ZenPepper]

yeah, what aji joe said, its "zhi tian jiao", infact you can find these in most chinese supermarkets.

you can google zhi tian jiao and read all the info you need

zhi tian means pointing to the sky, jiao is just pepper, so the nane means peppers that point to the sky.

 

[Shandley]

Much thanks!

 

[Shandley]

Here's an updated photo

 

[=MadMonkey=]

my guess is..

The Chile de árbol (Spanish for tree chili) aka bird's beak chile and rat's tail chile

 

[Dia Atton]

My guess is a Tien-tsin pepper it's a VERY common pepper in Szechuan providence in China.
Medium hot pepper likely around the same as a thai in my experience.

 

[ajijoe]

My guess is a Tien-tsin pepper it's a VERY common pepper in Szechuan providence in China.
Medium hot pepper likely around the same as a thai in my experience.

YUP THAT WAS MY GUESS TOO

 

[Shandley]

I just got a response from my friend in China. He told me the name is: 朝天椒
Google Translate showed it as chao tian jiao. Is that the same as zhi tian jiao?