All plants /Shrub /Chile Pequin
Chile Pequin
Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, nightshade family. Common in Central and East Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Tiny oval chiles, green ripening red
- How
- Fresh in salsas, dried and crushed, or vinegar-pickled
- When
- August into winter
- Where
- Under trees and fence lines where birds perch
- Value
- Serious heat; vitamins A and C
Caution: It is genuinely hot, several times a jalapeño, and the oils linger on fingers. It is also the parent of a nightshade family with inedible members: confirm the tiny upright red-when-ripe fruit on a knee-high shrub.
Identification
Texas's native chile: a shin-to-knee-high shrub in dappled shade, dotted with upright pea-sized fruit. Birds plant it under every fence-line tree.
In the kitchen
One or two fruits wake up a whole pot of beans. Dry a jar in autumn and you have crushed red pepper with a smoky wild edge all year.
Photo: Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.