Bell pepper
Bell peppers are botanical berries used as vegetables, native to the Americas and now grown worldwide.
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Wuzyprod · CC BY-SA 4.0
The bell pepper is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of Capsicum annuum, producing colors such as red, yellow, orange, green, white, and purple.[1] The fruit is classified as a berry and ranges in color from green, yellow, orange, red, purple, black, and white.[2]
Quick Facts
- Species
- Capsicum annuum
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The word ‘pepper’ is derived from the Sanskrit word pippali meaning "long pepper"[3] An early use of the term bell pepper was in the year 1683.[4] Europe received peppers via the Spanish, but it was the Portuguese who were chiefly responsible for introducing them to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.[5] Evidence from caves in Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador indicates that peppers were being utilized approximately 7,000 years ago, making them one of the earliest domesticated crops.[5]
A green bell pepper that has been allowed to mature becomes a red bell pepper, except for the 'Permagreen' cultivar, which stays green even when fully ripe.[6] Bell peppers thrive when grown in soil that is warm and moist, with temperatures ideally between 21 and 29 °C.[7]
What the cited sources add
The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox states that sweet peppers do not contain capsaicin because the gene for it is recessive.[2] The same source notes that green sweet peppers are not as sweet as other peppers because they are harvested before natural sugars develop.[2] The Wordorigins.org entry states that use of capsicum in reference to the fruit rather than the plant genus dates to the eighteenth century.[8] The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox indicates that sweet peppers have their origins in South America, specifically southern Brazil and Bolivia.[2]
References
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wells, "Longman Pronunciation Dictionary", Longman, 2008, p. 123; Rice, "Why do some people in Cincinnati call green peppers 'mangoes'?", The Cincinnati Enquirer; "Capsicum annuum (bell pepper)", CABI, 28 November 2017; "Capsicum annuum (Grossum Group) (Bell Pepper, Red pepper, Sweet Pepper) North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox", plants.ces.ncsu.edu (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Capsicum annuum (Grossum Group) (Bell Pepper, Red pepper, Sweet Pepper) North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox", plants.ces.ncsu.edu. facts only, no text reused. plants.ces.ncsu.edu
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pepper - Etymology, Origin & Meaning", etymonline (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Capsicum", Wordorigins.org, 2023-07-31; Oxford English Dictionary, "bell pepper noun", University of Oxford (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nunn, "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010, p. 171; Bosland, "Chiles: A gift from a Fiery God", HortScience, 1 August 199, p. 809–11; Tripodi, "Global range expansion history of pepper (Capsicum spp.) revealed by over 10,000 genebank accessions", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021-08-24, p. 6 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Vegetable of the Month: Bell Pepper", CDC Fruit & Vegetable of the Month (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bell pepper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Growing Peppers: The Important Facts", GardenersGardening.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Capsicum", Wordorigins.org, 2023-07-31. facts only, no text reused. wordorigins.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bell pepper (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Peppers & Citrus Fruits
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Bell pepper (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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