Capsicum carassense

Capsicum carassense is a wild Brazilian species endemic to south-eastern Minas Gerais, especially the Serra do Caraça and nearby mountain areas in the Iron Quadrangle. It was formally published in 2020, and its name refers to the Caraça region where the species occurs. Before formal description it circulated as Capsicum sp. 9 “Caraça”, a provisional identity given to wild populations found during Brazilian research work in 1999. It grows as a shrub in the understorey of semi-deciduous montane Atlantic Forest, usually in shaded, moist habitat between about 1000 and 1390 m elevation.

The plant is recognised by its very narrow leaves and overall pubescent growth. The leaves are dark green above and paler beneath, usually narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, commonly about 6.0 to 16.0 cm long and 1.0 to 2.5 cm wide, with a softly hairy surface. All parts of the plant are notably pubescent, including the stems, pedicels and calyx appendages, giving it a more textured appearance than the similar Capsicum mirabile. This dense pubescence and the long, narrow foliage are among the main traits used to recognise the species.

Its flowers are large for a south-eastern Brazilian wild Capsicum, borne in fascicles of 2 to 4, with geniculate pedicels and a stellate corolla about 10 to 12 mm long and 13 to 20 mm across. The corolla is white near the lobe margins with greenish-yellow colouring in the middle and base, and inside it shows five purple spots across the base of the lobes and throat. The calyx carries five prominent green appendages about 3 to 4 mm long, sometimes reaching 5 mm, which remain evident in fruit.

The fruit are small, globose-depressed berries about 6 to 7 mm across, hanging on pendent pedicels and ripening from green to yellowish-green. They are pungent, with PepperFriends specifically describing the species as highly pungent, and they contain 7 to 13 relatively large dark seeds that range from brownish-black to black. The combination of narrow dark foliage, strong pubescence, large white-and-purple-spotted flowers, small yellowish-green ripe fruit, and its very restricted Caraça-area distribution gives Capsicum carassense a distinct identity among the Atlantic Forest wild capsicums.