Pimenta de Neyde

Pimenta de Neyde is a Brazilian pepper discovered growing spontaneously in the garden of Neyde Hidalgo, after whom it was named. It is widely treated as a natural interspecific hybrid between Capsicum annuum and Capsicum chinense, with its overall habit often described as annuum-like while many fruit and flavour traits lean more toward chinense. It was already in circulation among pepper growers by August 2008.

The plant is tall, vigorous, and strongly ornamental, commonly described at about 90 to 150 cm tall, with dark purple to nearly black foliage and stems. Flowers are white with purple striping or purple undertones. The pods are elongated and bullet-like, usually about 4 to 7 cm long, with smooth to lightly wrinkled skin. Its most distinctive trait is the fruit colour: the pods develop in deep plum-purple tones and usually remain very dark through maturity rather than shifting to the usual red, orange, or yellow seen in most peppers. Shaded pods can stay lighter purple, while sun-exposed pods darken further toward purple-black.

Heat is generally placed in the habanero range, with commonly cited figures around 100000 to 250000 SHU and a median of about 175000 SHU. The flavour is fruity and aromatic with habanero-like notes, but it is also regularly described as carrying a slightly bitter or nutty undertone. It is used fresh in sauces, salsas, marinades, and powders, and it has also become one of the most important parent lines in modern dark-foliaged pepper breeding, contributing its purple foliage and dark pod traits to many later hybrids. One major factual conflict in public sources is species treatment: some sellers list it simply as Capsicum chinense, while others treat it as the natural annuum x chinense hybrid that best matches its accepted origin and mixed traits.