Madre de Rios

Description

A frutescens that refuses to behave like one. Instead of the slim upright fingers of a Tabasco, Madre de Rios carries small, almost round pods with a little point at the tip, barely a centimetre across, ripening green to red and standing upright in numbers all over the bush.

The plant is half the pleasure: dense, dark green, glossy and so uniformly healthy-looking that visitors assume it is artificial. It takes well to shaping, which makes it a good candidate for bonchi.

The heat is high for the species and it arrives fast. The flavour is genuinely unusual — peppery rather than sweet, with a dried-tomato edge — and it comes into its own dried, where the small thin-walled pods crush into excellent flakes and powder. The variety trades as an Amazonian wild type, though its collection history has never been properly documented.

Categories: C. frutescens , Hot , Bonsai , Easy to grow