What are manzanos and rocotos? excellent perennial peppers

摘要

If you are a spicy pepper lover, the manzano chili pepper new pepper for you to 2,row or look for in ethnic supermarkets! cently I found some yellowish orange manzano peppers in Josephs Marketplace in Crystal Lake, and have been pickling them, stuff-ing them and using them in various salsas, pickles and sauces. In Latin countries, the word manzano translates to apple or pear; the shape of this pepper accounts for its namesake. The genus and species Capsicum pubescens is quite different from C. annumor "regular" peppers. Unlike C. annum, which is distinguished by smooth, non-hairy leaves, white seeds, and white or yellowish flowers, C. pubescens has hairy leaves, black seeds and purple corollas (petals on its flowers). The manzano pepper and the canario (a yellow cultivar) are not found in the wild, but have been domesticated in Bolivian highland gardens for 6,000 years. The manzano was the common pepper of the Incas. It is still grown today in Cuzco, the former capital of the Incan empire. According to Dewitt in The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia, the canario can also be called cirbuelo in the Mexican state of Queretaro. In the Andes Mountains of Chile, Argentina and some parts of Bolivia, the manzano is called locoto in Quechuan (rotoco in Spanish).This pepper was introduced to mountainous regions of Chiapas and Michoacan, Mexico in the early part of the 20TH century. Rocoto (or rocote) is the Peruvian name for Capsicum pubescens. Ruiz and Pavon described C. pubescens in 1790 as a plant cultivatedin Peru after no wild plants were found. According to DeWitt and Gerlach, manzano pepper is a "commercial fresh-market crop in Arequipa, Peru and Patzcuaro, Mexico, but is occasionally grown in northern South America and mountainous areas of Central America. In Guatemala it is called caballo (horse - ie: kicks like a horse) or siete caldos (able to season seven soups).