curious

[worm drink]

My friend, who is from Trinidad, gave me a pepper plant a few years ago and told me it was a bird pepper. The plant in the picture is an offspring of that plant. Is bird pepper a generic term? Can someone tell me more precisely what it might be?  The peppers turn red when ripe and the flavor is unlike any other pepper that I've had.

 
 

 
The original plant grew next to a cayenne pepper plant. The offspring's pods appear to be more elongated and or larger than the previous plants pods. It's probably my imagination but could the cayenne have had that much of an effect on the new plant?

 

[cruzzfish]

Quite likely seeing as it was outside. That or the bird pepper wasn't stable.

 

[wildseed57]

It may have been a birdeye pepper at one point, but it does look like the cayenne did cross with it, most birdeye pepper pods are anywhere from 1/4" X1/4" to 1/4" X1/2" or around there. If it is unstable from the cross and you keep the seeds you will get all kinds of shapes and sizes, nothing wrong with that, so long as you like the flavor it can be used in any number of recipes calling for hot peppers, The ones in the photo looks like they would make a good salsa or even pickled, or you can slice them op and add them to your favorite sandwich.

 

[worm drink]

I guess I was a bit naive, this is the first time that I have grown a plant from my own seed. I never thought I would be able to notice a visible change from one gen. to the next. Pretty cool though. I did a little research on my own and learned that if the original plant was "true" then what I have would be an f1 hybrid. So when seeds are traded here there must be the understanding that you have a strong chance of receiving a hybrid. Regardless of what it is, it is a great tasting pepper with a fair amount of heat and I will continue growing it. Thanks for the replies.

 

[wildseed57]

You pretty much have to bag the flowers to get pure seeds, or do as I do now and glue the flowers shut when they began to open a little drop on the end of a QTip or very small watercolor brush and just paint a little glue onto the flower petals so that the stick together. and put a wire tie around the stem so you know that the pods came from the glued flowers.
You can find seed from Vendors here that are very trustworthy and you will get what you ask for, if you're looking for something special ask anyone and they can tell you who might be selling it.