Which is the most diverse species?

[ronniedeb]

Which Capsicum species has the most varieties? Surely baccatum or chinense, given their popularity in the regions which have the longest history of domestication? Anyone know for sure?

 

[Hendrix1326]

I'd say it's a tossup between Annuum and Chinense, though Baccatum could turn out to trump them both, since it has subspecies that the others don't have, in isolation in South America.

 

[pepperhog]

there are a lot popin up every were with crosses and new seeds being brought in from all over i would say annums there pods cover most of all chili shapes and flavors go from floral to earthy to sweet to bitter most people loose intrest in em cuz the heat dosent get as high as chinense i think 150,000 is very high for annums most chinense are just geting started there, but they are a very wide spread groop and seem to dominate chili gardens in temprate climates so from the small tepin at 100.000 shu to the giant bell pepper at 0 shu I say annums

 

[Spicegeist]

Great question, but the answer may be too substantial for this forum.

A complicating factor in your hypothesis is that frequently natural selection can decrease genetic variation in populations...

In other words, genetic variation is a different question from the number of domesticated varieties.