Capsicum frutescens L.
African Chilli, African Pepper, Aji, Aji caballero (ES); Bird pepper
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 frutescens is a wild chili pepper that has genetic proximity to the cultivated pepper Capsicum chinense. It is native to Central and South America as well as Mexico. Pepper cultivars of C. frutescens can be annual or short-lived perennial plants.
Text from Wikipedia, “Capsicum frutescens”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Capsicum annuum var. conicum (G.Mey.) Alef.; Capsicum annuum var. conoide (Mill.) Irish; Capsicum annuum var. frutescens (L.) Alef.; Capsicum annuum var. frutescens (L.) Kuntze; Capsicum annuum var. parvo-acuminatum Makino and 29 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March and May to November 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 (1352 mm of 1818 mm) takes 8 months, March and May to November. Mean temperature moves 1.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve 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 1818 mm a year, wettest September at 203 mm, driest February at 101 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1818 mm a year at the habitat, 1352 mm of it March and May to November. Wettest month September at 203 mm, driest February at 101 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1045 mm to 3553 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: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 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 43).
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 19.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 16.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.4 °C to 23.7 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 28 / 24–30 | 28 / 24–31 | 29 / 25–31 | 29 / 25–33 | 28 / 25–33 | 28 / 24–32 | 28 / 23–32 | 28 / 24–32 | 29 / 24–32 | 28 / 24–31 | 28 / 24–30 | 28 / 23–30 |
| Night °C | 21 / 14–24 | 21 / 15–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 15–25 | 22 / 15–25 | 21 / 15–25 | 22 / 15–25 | 22 / 15–25 | 22 / 16–24 | 21 / 16–24 | 21 / 15–24 |
| Rain mm | 106 / 25–295 | 101 / 21–294 | 132 / 20–341 | 127 / 36–365 | 147 / 61–404 | 190 / 35–418 | 172 / 27–409 | 172 / 25–385 | 203 / 40–391 | 174 / 46–338 | 162 / 33–293 | 132 / 31–283 |
| DLI | 31 / 25–37 | 32 / 28–38 | 35 / 29–41 | 34 / 26–43 | 31 / 24–42 | 30 / 23–40 | 32 / 24–41 | 34 / 28–40 | 33 / 29–39 | 32 / 27–39 | 31 / 25–37 | 30 / 23–36 |
| RH % | 65 / 58–70 | 64 / 57–70 | 64 / 56–71 | 65 / 56–72 | 66 / 57–73 | 66 / 60–74 | 65 / 59–73 | 65 / 59–72 | 66 / 59–72 | 66 / 59–72 | 66 / 59–72 | 65 / 59–71 |
Each figure is the median across the 450 grid cells holding the 495 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 1438:2064 (18.075, -76.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.1 °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 450 distinct grid cells holding the 495 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1438:2064 (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 18.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +358 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 496 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) ritirene, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
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 frutescens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Mimosa pudica Action Plant
Annona muricata Brazilian pawpaw
Peperomia pellucida Clearweed
Bixa orellana Bixaceae
Dieffenbachia seguine Dumb Cane
Monstera adansonii Adanson's MonsteraOther Capsicum 4 in the reference
Capsicum annuum Bell Pepper
Capsicum baccatum bird pepper
Capsicum chinense Chinese capsicum
Capsicum pubescens apple chile 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 174 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








