Capsicum hunzikerianum

Capsicum hunzikerianum is a wild Brazilian species formally published in 2005 by Barboza and Bianchetti. It is a narrowly endemic Atlantic Forest taxon known from a very restricted area in south-eastern Brazil, especially São Paulo State, and is associated with the Estação Biológica de Boracéia. It has been described as one of the most localised Brazilian wild Capsicum species and was first documented in the herbarium record trail from a Boracéia collection made in 1999.

The plant is a robust erect shrub, commonly about 1 to 3 m tall, and stands out among Brazilian wild capsicums for its larger size and especially large flowers. Field and horticultural sources describe it as largely glabrous, with violaceous nodes and young branches, smooth narrow to coriaceous leaves, and a habit adapted to marshy, misty habitat. Its range is tied to wet montane Atlantic Forest conditions rather than drier inland environments.

Its flowers are one of its defining features. Sources describe a large spotted stellate corolla with greenish to yellowish markings in the throat and purplish-red spotting on the lobes, together with a calyx bearing five evident teeth. The species has repeatedly been noted as closely allied to Capsicum cornutum, but it is recognised as distinct within the São Paulo flora.

The fruit are described as larger than those of many other south-eastern Brazilian wild species, somewhat irregular in shape, spherical to slightly compressed, and pungent. They mature to a yellowish-green stage rather than red, and the seeds are described as brown to black-brown. The combination of marsh habitat, glabrous violaceous growth, large spotted flowers, five-toothed calyx, and green to yellowish-green pungent fruit gives Capsicum hunzikerianum a very distinct identity among the wild peppers of Brazil.