Capsicum frutescensBird's Eye Chilli

Capsicum frutescens is the shrubby perennial chilli behind bird's eye and tabasco peppers, native to the tropical Americas and now grown across every warm region on earth. It makes a compact woody-based bush carrying small upward-pointing fruit that ripen from green through to scarlet, often with all stages on the plant at once.

In landscape work it earns its keep in productive and edible planting schemes, kitchen courtyards and container displays where the fruit is the ornament.

Specifications

• Height0.5 to 1.5 metres, reaching 2 metres in the wet tropics
• Width0.5 to 1 metre
• Native toTropical Central and South America
• FoliageOvate mid-green leaves on branching woody stems; evergreen in frost-free conditions
• Growth rateFast

Conditions

• SoilPrefers fertile, free-draining soils enriched with organic matter
• LightFull sun
• WaterModerate; regular and even, particularly while fruiting
• ClimateThrives in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions

Additional Features

• FlowersSmall greenish-white star-shaped flowers produced continuously in warm conditions
• FruitSmall, slender, upward-pointing fruit ripening green to scarlet, held in quantity
• UsesIdeal for edible and productive planting, kitchen courtyards, raised beds and container display
• SpacingPlant 0.4 to 0.6 metres apart for a continuous productive bed
• Low MaintenanceRequires little beyond harvesting; tip prune to keep the bush compact
• Pest ResistanceGenerally sound, with aphid and whitefly the usual concerns under cover
• Frost SensitivityCut back by frost and treated as an annual in cold-winter climates
• Seasonal AppealFlowers and fruit at several stages of ripeness are carried together for months

Bird's Eye Chilli brings colour and a working harvest to any warm-climate productive planting scheme.