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Aji pepper

David J. Stang / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Aji pepper

Capsicum baccatum

Aji pepper is the South American chili species behind aji amarillo, Lemon Drop, Bishop's crown and Brazil's dedo-de-moça - one of the five domesticated chili peppers, and a different plant from the familiar garden pepper (Capsicum annuum) and the habanero (Capsicum chinense). It is a perennial shrub native from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru through Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and central and southern Brazil, and where it can live for years it grows taller than most garden peppers, up to about 6.6 feet. Its white to cream flowers are typically marked with green or gold, and its fruits, which usually hang down in cultivated forms, come in an unusually wide range of shapes, from long tapered pods to the crown-shaped Bishop's crown. Heat runs from nearly heatless types to hot ones; aji amarillo is rated around 30,000-50,000 Scoville units. It is frost tender, so outside nearly frost-free climates it is grown as a warm-weather annual.

Climate fit: narrow (30/100)

Edible

Container

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

6.6 ft tall · 3.3 ft apart

Hardy in zones

8a-11b

cold to nearly frost-free winters

Life cycle

Perennial

Native in Illinois

No

The fruit is the part eaten, raw or cooked, and PFAF describes its flavour as medium to very hot.

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 9 ecoregions - 7 climate-resilient through 2070 · 2 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.

California coastal sage and chaparral

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Eastern Australian temperate forests

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Edwards Plateau savanna

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Fynbos shrubland

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New Zealand North Island temperate forests

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Piney Woods

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Willamette Valley oak savanna

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Puget lowland forests

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What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

3.3 ft

Habit

Upright, open, branching warm-season annual in most gardens; a woody-based perennial shrub in frost-free climates

Care tips

•

Start early and give it heat - aji peppers need a long, warm season to ripen fruit, so sow in warmth in late winter to early spring and plant out into the warmest, sunniest spot you have.

•

Stake or cage plants early; they can grow taller than bell or cayenne peppers and may flop under a heavy crop.

•

Wear gloves when picking and cutting hot types, and keep your hands away from your eyes and face.

Lifecycle

Planting

PFAF advises sowing in late winter to early spring in a warm greenhouse; the seed usually germinates in 3-4 weeks at 68°F, and the seedlings should be pricked out into individual pots of reasonably rich soil and grown on fast. Indoors, a start about 8-10 weeks before the last frost, with gentle bottom heat, gives the plants time to fruit. Plant out after the last expected frost into a very warm, sunny position with fertile, well-drained soil, as PFAF recommends.

Transplanting

Harden off starts and move them out on a mild, overcast day once nights stay above about 60°F; cold soil stalls peppers and they recover slowly. PFAF suggests giving young plants the protection of a cloche or frame until they are established and growing away well. Space plants about 3.3 feet apart, the spread PFAF gives for the species, and pinch off the earliest flowers so the plant builds roots and branches first.

Early growth

Keep moisture moderate and even; PFAF notes it prefers moist but well-drained soil and cannot grow in shade. The plants branch into a tall, open frame and often need a stake or cage before they carry a full crop. Go easy on nitrogen, which pushes leafy growth at the expense of flowers and fruit.

Maturity

PFAF gives a size of up to 6.6 feet tall and 3.3 feet wide for the perennial plant, and the UK-based PFAF lists it in flower from August to September, so in a northern garden the fruit ripens from late summer until frost. Pick fruits green or fully colored; ripe aji amarillo pods are bright orange. Wear gloves when handling hot types and keep your hands away from your eyes.

Propagation

Grown from seed, sown in warmth in late winter to early spring. Open-pollinated cultivars come mostly true from saved seed, but the flowers can be pollinated by insects as well as by wind or their own pollen, so isolate aji peppers from other varieties if you save seed. In frost-free climates plants can simply be kept from year to year, and a container plant can be cut back and overwintered in a bright, frost-free room.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Chenopodium quinoa

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Better fit now and in 2050

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Better fit now and in 2050

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Physalis pruinosa

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A low, sprawling nightshade grown for the sweet golden berries that ripen inside papery, lantern-like husks and drop to the ground when ready - hence "ground cherry." Soft, slightly hairy stems with heart-shaped toothed leaves carry small yellowish bell-shaped flowers all summer. Grown like a tomato, it is a tender annual in most of the US but can persist as a short-lived perennial where frost is absent.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

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Eruca vesicaria

Arugula

A fast cool-season annual of the mustard family grown for its peppery, mustard-like salad greens - irregular, pinnately-lobed basal leaves in a low rosette, each with 4 to 10 small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe (Missouri Botanical Garden). First cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still widely grown across Europe, it is best grown in the cooler spring and fall months rather than summer heat; leaves are harvested young and tender before they turn strong and bitter. Pale-yellow four-petalled flowers with dark brown or purple veins appear in corymbs if plants are left to bloom.

Vegetable

Full sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Physalis peruviana

Cape gooseberry

A lax, branching nightshade from South America grown for tart-sweet golden berries, each wrapped in a papery, lantern-like husk. Despite the name it is unrelated to true gooseberries: the "Cape" is usually traced to its early cultivation at South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, and it is also known as goldenberry, Peruvian groundcherry, and poha. Taller and longer-lived than the ground cherry, it reaches 3.3 to 4.9 feet with velvety heart-shaped leaves and nodding yellow flowers marked with chocolate-brown centers. It is a reliable perennial only where frost is absent and is grown as a summer annual or a greenhouse plant everywhere colder. Only the fully ripe fruit is eaten - the husk, leaves, stems, flowers, and unripe fruit are poisonous - and it has become invasive in Hawaii and on other Pacific islands.

A warm-season annual vegetable in the nightshade family, grown for fresh summer fruit. Tomatoes need full sun, consistent moisture, slightly acidic soil, and night temperatures above 50°F. Larger fruits like beefsteaks can struggle in extended hot southern summers because flowers drop without setting fruit.

Vegetable

Full sun

Consistent moisture

Zones Annual (tender perennial only in true tropics)

An Andean grain crop grown for its small, protein-rich seeds, which ripen in dense heads of white, red or black at the top of an upright annual usually 3.3 to 6.6 feet tall. Quinoa is a pseudocereal, not a grass: it belongs to the amaranth family (the goosefoot genus was formerly placed in Chenopodiaceae), is related to spinach, and shares its genus with the garden weed lambsquarters. The seeds carry a bitter saponin coat that must be soaked and rinsed off before cooking, and the young leaves are eaten cooked like spinach. A true annual sown each spring, it does best where summers are cool and may not produce seed where temperatures run too hot.

A fast cool-season annual of the mustard family grown for its peppery, mustard-like salad greens - irregular, pinnately-lobed basal leaves in a low rosette, each with 4 to 10 small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe (Missouri Botanical Garden). First cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still widely grown across Europe, it is best grown in the cooler spring and fall months rather than summer heat; leaves are harvested young and tender before they turn strong and bitter. Pale-yellow four-petalled flowers with dark brown or purple veins appear in corymbs if plants are left to bloom.

Vegetable

Full sun / Part shade

Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group)

Collard greens

A cool-weather leafy cabbage relative grown for its broad, leathery, blue-green leaves that grow in a loose upright rosette on a thick stem - never forming a head ("acephala" is Greek for headless). A biennial almost always grown as an annual, it sweetens after a fall frost and, in mild-winter regions, keeps producing leaves through winter until it bolts in spring. One of the most cold-tolerant vegetables in the cabbage family.

A warm-season member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) - a relative of tomato, potato, and pepper - grown for its showy, glossy edible berries that range from white and green through deep purple to nearly black depending on cultivar. The plant is technically a tender herbaceous perennial but is grown as an annual vegetable across most of North America, where it demands a long, hot, frost-free season to fruit well. Drooping violet star-shaped flowers give way to the familiar pendant fruit; the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots are toxic and only the fruit is eaten.

Educator packet

Plant packet

Aji pepper educator packet

Aji pepper is the South American chili species behind aji amarillo, Lemon Drop, Bishop's crown and Brazil's dedo-de-moça - one of the five domesticated chili peppers, and a different plant from the familiar garden pepper (Capsicum annuum) and the habanero (Capsicum chinense). It is a perennial shrub native from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru through Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and central and southern Brazil, and where it can live for years it grows taller than most garden peppers, up to about 6.6 feet. Its white to cream flowers are typically marked with green or gold, and its fruits, which usually hang down in cultivated forms, come in an unusually wide range of shapes, from long tapered pods to the crown-shaped Bishop's crown. Heat runs from nearly heatless types to hot ones; aji amarillo is rated around 30,000-50,000 Scoville units. It is frost tender, so outside nearly frost-free climates it is grown as a warm-weather annual.

Scientific name

Capsicum baccatum

Plant type

vegetable

Hardiness

8a-11b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

3.3 ft