Cap­sicum has been known since the begin­ning of civil­iz­a­tion in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. After Colum­bus returned from his explor­a­tions, they were intro­duced to Europe and other parts of the world, and cul­tiv­a­tion of the plant began in Spain and Por­tugal in the early six­teenth century.

The genus Capsicum contains five cultivated species and 22 wild species (Bosland and Votava 2000). Wild species of Capsicum are important genetic resources for Capsicum breeding (Bosland and Gonzalez 2000). Not only are wild species useful in breeding for disease resistance, but they can be used to increase nutritional quality, yield and adaptation to stress (Bosland 1993). Interspecific hybridization plays an active role in the introgression of needed genes from wild species to commercial cultivars. Investigations of hybridization compatibility between Capsicum species can be helpful in determining the systematics of the genus Capsicum, and consequently, the improvement of cultivated varieties.

Wild spe­cies of cap­sicum are the ancest­ors of all cul­tiv­ated spe­cies which con­tains more then 3000 vari­et­ies. All spe­cies of wild cap­sic­ums have cer­tain com­mon char­ac­ter­ist­ics: small, pun­gent, red fruits that may be round, elong­ate or con­ical and are attached to the plant in an erect pos­i­tion. The seeds of the decidu­ous fruits are dis­persed by birds that are not affected by the pun­gency. Wild cap­sicum flowers have a stigma-bearing style that extends bey­ond the anthers to facil­it­ate pol­lin­a­tion by insects. Domest­ic­ated cul­tivars have short styles that pro­mote self-pollination.

When humans began to cul­tiv­ate the cap­sicum plant they, uncon­sciously or per­haps even con­sciously, selec­ted seed from those fruits that where dif­fi­cult to remove from the calyx so that birds could not pluck them. Pen­dent fruits became more desir­able, and today most domest­ic­ated cap­sic­ums have pen­dent fruits instead of erect. Each time lar­ger fruits where selec­ted, the size and weight increased, which caused the cap­sic­ums to become pendent.

Source: Paul Bos­land / Jean Andrews