Patagonia

Patagonia is a Hispanic heirloom Capsicum annuum associated with Patagonia, Arizona, where it has been preserved and circulated as a small upright cone-shaped chilli used especially for a thin hot sauce blended with vinegar. Native Seeds/SEARCH describes it as a seed bank heirloom grown in Patagonia, Arizona, with upright fruits that stand above the plant and ripen from yellow with purple mottling to orange and then red.

The plant is described as compact, bushy, and very productive. Current listings place plants at about 40 to 60 cm tall, while other seller descriptions say they can reach 61 cm or more. The pods are small, generally about 25 mm long, with some current listings extending them to about 32 mm, and they are consistently described as upright, conical, and suited to container growing or small gardens.

Its heat is generally placed in the mild-to-medium or medium-hot range rather than in the superhot class. HRSeeds gives the named pepper a range of 1,000 to 7,000 SHU, while Native Seeds/SEARCH describes it as medium-hot. In present circulation it is valued less for extreme pungency than for its ornamental appearance, steady yield, and usefulness in vinegar-based sauce making.

A major factual conflict exists over country of origin. Native Seeds/SEARCH, Kokopelli, and HRSeeds tie Patagonia directly to Patagonia, Arizona in the United States, while CHILLIESontheWEB lists the origin as Mexico. That conflict affects the origin field, but the exact-name descriptions remain otherwise consistent in describing the same small upright annuum with yellow-and-purple immature fruit that ripens orange and then red.