Species
+

Capsicum chinense Jacq.

Ají (ES), Chinese capsicum, Datil (USA), Habanero pepper (EN)

Climate known 26 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Capsicum chinense, commonly known as a "habanero-type pepper", is a species of chili pepper native to the Americas. C. chinense varieties are well known for their unique flavors and, in many cases, exceptional heat. The hottest peppers in the world are members of this species, with a Scoville heat unit score of 2.69 million measured in the C. chinense cultivar Pepper X in 2023.

Text from Wikipedia, “Capsicum chinense”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to the Americas, cultivated worldwide for their edible fruit, which are generally known as "peppers" or "capsicum". Chili peppers grow on five species of Capsicum. Sweet or bell peppers and some chili peppers are Capsicum annuum, making it the most cultivated species in the genus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Capsicum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Guyana, Surinam, Brazil North
Wild records
147 in range· 82 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Mar, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
3212mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 363 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to July and September to October at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 3212 mm a year, wettest May at 363 mm, driest November at 218 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Capsicum annuum var. cerasiforme (Mill.) Irish; Capsicum annuum var. chinense (Jacq.) Alef.; Capsicum annuum var. luteum (Lam.) Alef.; Capsicum annuum var. milleri (Roem. & Schult.) Alef.; Capsicum assamicum J.Purkay. & Lok.Singh and 26 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to July and September to October at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (2314 mm of 3212 mm) takes 8 months, February to July and September to October. Mean temperature moves 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 3212 mm a year, wettest May at 363 mm, driest November at 218 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

3212 mm a year at the habitat, 2314 mm of it February to July and September to October. Wettest month May at 363 mm, driest November at 218 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1920 mm to 3622 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.4 °C, the absolute minimum 16.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 20.3 °C to 22.4 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 68 to 73% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jun to 30 °C in Mar; mean night from 22 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 3212 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 117 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°31.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–33RH 68–73 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 117 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 28–3030 / 29–3130 / 29–3029 / 29–3028 / 28–2928 / 27–2928 / 27–3029 / 28–3229 / 29–3230 / 29–3230 / 29–3029 / 29–30
Night °C23 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 21–2322 / 21–2322 / 20–2222 / 21–2323 / 22–2323 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–24
Rain mm225 / 95–350241 / 121–334286 / 142–347326 / 189–400363 / 92–444339 / 28–497287 / 19–507224 / 35–390239 / 48–288233 / 81–265218 / 117–280231 / 128–326
DLI32 / 28–3331 / 28–3331 / 28–3227 / 26–3024 / 23–2923 / 23–3125 / 24–3329 / 28–3632 / 30–3933 / 30–3831 / 28–3530 / 29–32
RH %68 / 65–7269 / 65–7270 / 66–7272 / 67–7473 / 66–7473 / 62–7573 / 57–7472 / 55–7371 / 59–7371 / 62–7271 / 64–7370 / 65–72

Each figure is the median across the 117 grid cells holding the 143 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1821:2178 (-1.075, -71.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 117 distinct grid cells holding the 143 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1821:2178 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.00_-71.250, lapse-corrected -38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 108 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGuyana, Surinam, Brazil North· introduced: Guinea-Bissau, Mexico Central, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker3.878, -67.894 · in the densest population, 97 records (66% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 147 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 82 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 420 km away. 362 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 147 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Capsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinenseCapsicum chinense

Photographs: (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Mark Richman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); Diogo Luiz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; The New York Botanical Garden, CC BY, via GBIF.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Capsicum chinense, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Genome sequence of the hot pepper provides insights into the evolution of pungency in Capsicum species
Seungill Kim, Minkyu Park, Seon‐In Yeom, Yong Min Kim (2014) · Nature Genetics
The influence of fruit ripening on the phytochemical content and biological activity of Capsicum chinense Jacq. cv Habanero
Francesco Menichini, Rosa Tundis, Marco Bonesi, Monica Rosa Loizzo (2008) · Food Chemistry
Foliar Application of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Zinc Sulfate Boosts the Content of Bioactive Compounds in Habanero Peppers
Josué I. García-López, Guillermo Niño‐Medina, Emilio Olivares‐Sáenz, Ricardo Hugo Lira-Saldívar (2019) · Plants
Changes in Capsaicinoids during Development, Maturation, and Senescence of Chile Peppers and Relation with Peroxidase Activity
Margarita Contreras-Padilla, Elhadi M. Yahia (1998) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Candidate gene analysis of organ pigmentation loci in the Solanaceae
T. A. Thorup, Bahattin Tanyolaç, Kevin Livingstone, Sigal Popovsky (2000) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Bacillus spp. inoculation improves photosystem II efficiency and enhances photosynthesis in pepper plants
Blancka Yesenia Samaniego-Gámez, René Garruña, José María Tun-Suárez, Jorge Kantun-Can (2016) · Chilean journal of agricultural research
Effect of solvent polarity on the Ultrasound Assisted extraction and antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds from habanero pepper leaves (Capsicum chinense) and its identification by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS
Emanuel Herrera‐Pool, Ana Ramos-Díaz, Manuel Alejandro Lizardi‐Jiménez, Soledad Cecilia Pech-Cohuo (2021) · Ultrasonics Sonochemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Capsicum 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.