Tabasco pepper

Taxobox
name = Tabasco


image_width = 250px
image_caption = Tabasco Peppers (ripe and unripe)
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
subclassis = Asteridae
ordo = Solanales
familia = Solanaceae
genus = "Capsicum"
species = "C. frutescens"
subspecies = "C. f. var. tabasco"
trinomial = "Capsicum frutescens var. 'tabasco"'
trinomial_authority = Pepper


boxwidth=250px
heat=Hot (SR: 30,000-50,000)The tabasco pepper is a variety of chile pepper species "Capsicum frutescens". It is best known through its use in Tabasco sauce, followed by "peppered vinegar".

Like all frutescens chilis, the tabasco plant has a typical bushy growth, which commercial cultivation makes stronger by trimming the plants. The tapered fruits, around 4 cm long, are initially pale yellowish-green and turn yellow and orange before ripening to bright red. Tabascos rate from 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville scale of heat levels.

A large part of the tabasco pepper stock fell victim to the tobacco mosaic virus in the 1960s, and the first resistant variety ("Greenleaf tabasco") was not able to be cultured until around 1970.

Naming

Even though the word "tabasco" is the name of a Mexican state, this variety of pepper was first grown in large quantities in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The initial letter of "tabasco" is rendered in lowercase when referring to the botanical variety, but is capitalized when used as a brand name to refer to the pepper's namesake sauce product

References

*The information in this article is based on a translation of its German equivalent.