Bell pepper

Description

Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus Capsicum (peppers) native to southern North America and northern South America. This species is the most common and extensively cultivated of the five domesticated capsicums. The species encompasses a wide variety of shapes and sizes of peppers, both mild and hot, such as bell peppers, jalapeños, and cayenne peppers. Cultivars are descended from the wild American bird pepper still found in warmer regions of the Americas. In the past some woody forms of this species have been called C. frutescens, but the features that were used to distinguish those forms appear in many populations of C. annuum and it is not a consistently recognizable feature in C. frutescens species. Moreover, crosses between C. annuum and C. frutescens aren't likely because seeds obtained from pollination between those two species (if the embryo survives) will not germinate.