There are several chili trees growing wild in some nearby bushland.

One appears to be Siling Labuyo



another looks like it is Chiltepin Chili



and there is this third plant which always grows in the same spot as the chili trees, and looks almost identical to them except it has a black berry (when ripe) that grows in a cluster of 4. It has virtually identical flowers, leaves and woody stems. If you saw the three trees with no fruit on them in good condition, you couldn't tell them apart.

I couldn't find a good example to photograph as bugs have eaten most of their leaves, but the unknown plant is on the right and Chiltepin chili on the left - Any idea what it is? Just a type of weed?

Hope it's not deadly nightshade!
Have you eaten any?
Just googled it and there are some similar looking plants.

Where's Underoath? He's the presiding Seabreeze Chili Expert.

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/General-Discussion/Chat/So-I-ate-a-chili/

Haircut the one on the right is a weed don't know what it is , just seen it take over . Love to see if someone can identify it .

99% sure this is it - thanks guys

djsgrowers.blogspot.com/2013/04/blackberry-nightshade-id-photos.html

i don't know about the black one but.....the smaller the reds the higher the burn going in and extreme burn on the way out

yeah, the two chili plants are mega hot. amazing for such a little chili

Hey, Eastern Australia Chilli Seed Exchange on facebook will be able to help you out.

I'm currently trying to build up the courage to make another video with the chilli below. The Chockolate Bhut Jolika.

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Haircut said...
yeah, the two chili plants are mega hot. amazing for such a little chili

The Siling Labuyo has a scovial scale (heat) of 100k, the Bhut Jolika is around 1200% hotter. Let me you if you want me to send you some to try.

I was thinking it looks like black nightshade - but that is not restricted to only 4 berries per stalk thingy. So guess it is same genus or family?
black nightshade grows everywhere, and is edible, but you need to know the difference with deadly nightshade like Decrep says so I'd not be having a nibble...

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Underoath said...

Haircut said...
yeah, the two chili plants are mega hot. amazing for such a little chili

The Siling Labuyo has a scovial scale (heat) of 100k, the Bhut Jolika is around 1200% hotter. Let me you if you want me to send you some to try.

I'm growing some now, along with some Carolina Reapers which are the current world record world i think. Should be interesting considering i find Nandos mild rather hot

Anyone who saw Underoaths video will decline any of his offers

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Mark _australia said..
I was thinking it looks like black nightshade - but that is not restricted to only 4 berries per stalk thingy. So guess it is same genus or family?
black nightshade grows everywhere, and is edible, but you need to know the difference with deadly nightshade like Decrep says so I'd not be having a nibble...

Yes looks like what we call blackberry nightshade. They're all in the Solanaceae family, along with tomatoes. According to ever-reliable Wikipedia the deadly nightshade has fruits in singles. Just doing a bit of research now. Hmmm. A mild tangy taste, closer to tomatoe than to chile.

A question regarding the mega hot chillis...

Is there any benefit (apart perhaps for those who want bragging rights) in using these?

I mean, if a chilli is so hot as to be painful, surely it is more difficult to get an even taste through a meal. I'm thinking of the risk of biting into a piece of chilli that is so hot.

Why not just use a moderately/sensibly hot chilli to flavour the food. I enjoy spicy food and have always been able to get a dish hot enough without resorting to super hot chillis.

Am I missing something here?

Apart from hot chilies releasing a truck load of endorphins.

The more you eat the less they burn.

Over the weekend made a sauce with Scorpions and Brain Strains.

Once you add all the other ingredients such as ginger, garlic, vinegar - and only use a small amount in your dishes, its bloody beautiful.

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Skid said..
A question regarding the mega hot chillis...

Is there any benefit (apart perhaps for those who want bragging rights) in using these?

I mean, if a chilli is so hot as to be painful, surely it is more difficult to get an even taste through a meal. I'm thinking of the risk of biting into a piece of chilli that is so hot.

Why not just use a moderately/sensibly hot chilli to flavour the food. I enjoy spicy food and have always been able to get a dish hot enough without resorting to super hot chillis.

Am I missing something here?

thats a really good question Skid.

a mate asked the same question the other night,he believes its a pissing comp thing but his idea of hot is sweet chilly sauce off the supermarket shelf.

i make a chilli con carne with brown sugar and birds eye chilli,its a sweet taste then a real bite after taste,i love it so does my wife.

so my mate said, if i gave you a birds eye chilli now it would burn your mouth out,,,see its a pissing comp.

i said, i love wasabi but I'm not going to swallow a tablespoon of it to prove i love it either.

like underoath said theres some sort of release in the body + your own body has a limit mine is scorpion chilli they are mind blowing, out of my league.

also i have a group of mates that pickle chilli or make chilli beef jerky,,no pissing comp we just like eating and sharing hot food.

we are also very mindful not to give it to others and stuff their food experience.

but if we did and sat there fingers pointing and laughing id say its a pissing comp.

a tip.
if you are given a chilli that is too hot,spit it out and NEVER lick your lips.

^^^ and don't go to the toilet without washing your hands thoroughly before.

The plant with black berries is a weed. If you are a keen gardener, it is quite possible that a few of those may pop up next to your drip points. Pull it up straight away as it has very deep root system. It will rob your plants all water and nutrients. You will find pulling it up takes quite an effort as its roots spread far and deep !

Regarding Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Chilli, it is one experience you won't forget if you did allow one near your tongue! I did have some 7 plants in my garden. I grew them more for curiosity. A friend told me that he is into very hot chilli. I gave him a small bag of it. When I offered him more later, he quickly declined!

A truly bloody hot chilli. My brows actually began to sweat as I sliced one up. I think it is the fumes. So what is the purpose of it? Indian Crowd Control agency uses it to manufacture pepper spray. Even Indians themselves who are used to hot chillies, will only use one for the entire pot of curry.

So is it worth the bother to eat them? For a challenge, may be. In the morning, when you retreat to the one-man magazine room, you will feel the full impact of the poor judgment you made the night before. That song "Ring of fire" by Johnny Cash gets repeated in that "House Of Pain" for the next 15 minutes. So watch out !

I've grown and eaten most of them all the way up to the Trinidad Scorpion. The Reaper is a variant and now holds the record, but frankly once you get into the mega hot 1million+ Scoville range they are all the same and unusable unless you dilute them into sauces etc. I still have jars of death sauce floating around from years ago...

I now focus on the unnamed chilli variants used on a day to day basis by SE Asia. Many families have their own variants they grow. It is fun searching for that perfect blend of nice taste with the right heat that you can actually eat one with a meal without it being stupid.

Frankly the good old Thai Birdseye is still one of the best and most usable Chilli's. Anything hotter starts to defeat the purpose of the food you are cooking.

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Paradox said..
I've grown and eaten most of them all the way up to the Trinidad Scorpion. The Reaper is a variant and now holds the record, but frankly once you get into the mega hot 1million+ Scoville range they are all the same and unusable unless you dilute them into sauces etc. I still have jars of death sauce floating around from years ago...

I now focus on the unnamed chilli variants used on a day to day basis by SE Asia. Many families have their own variants they grow. It is fun searching for that perfect blend of nice taste with the right heat that you can actually eat one with a meal without it being stupid.

Frankly the good old Thai Birdseye is still one of the best and most usable Chilli's. Anything hotter starts to defeat the purpose of the food you are cooking.

i figured there was smarter men then us who had solved the hottest to useability scale. so its just the birdseyes ive been buying at woolies and coles for ecaes >_< bit of a let down.... whats one up from birdseye i could easily grow in a icecream container on the back steps?

The two I posted at the top are hotter but tolerable, and can be grown in little pots. I've got several growing from seeds taken from the Bush in the bush. Looks like they don't have to grow much till they grow fruit

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Kozzie said..

i figured there was smarter men then us who had solved the hottest to useability scale. so its just the birdseyes ive been buying at woolies and coles for ecaes >_< bit of a let down.... whats one up from birdseye i could easily grow in a icecream container on the back steps?

In my experience Coles and Woolies do NOT sell true birds eye chillies. I have never had a chilli from there with anything near comparable heat. Proper birds eyes are hot no matter how attuned you are (Many million's of Thai's will attest to this) and will give a good kick if you are eating enough to get good flavour as well. Go to bunnings or another nursery and buy a true birds eye plant from them to grow. They will grow in a pot if you look after it no problem, but will thrive more in the ground if well drained soil and lot of fertiliser.

Alternatively buy seeds from a reputable aussie online chilli seed store (google chilli seeds). They will have lots of options. As a tip, start your seeds off in mid to late winter. I put mine on little starter pots and put them on top of the fridge for warmth (wont germinate unless about 20deg). Cover them with glad wrap with a few holes to keep moisture in. They will take up to 6 weeks to germinate and don't need sun until they have popped and then gentle sun in a window or such will be fine until it gets warm enough to put them outside.

@Haircut, I would say your first shot is actually Prik Kee Noo Suan or Thai Mouse **** Chillis. Nasty little guys and do grow wild well. They were my first real chilli I grew some decades ago and only gave up on them because they are so hard to harvest - too small. I found a grove of them under a mango tree in the middle of a cow paddock many km's from the nearest house...

Hi Paradox - that's what I first thought they were. I showed them to a few people and read a bit on the web, and they pretty much confirmed siling labuyo. Apparently the mouse turd chili can grow with a slight bend in them and have other very small variations, similar to a conventional red chili, but the siling labuyo are always straight - again, just what I'm told and reading

When they next get fruit, I'll post a picture. The pic at the top of the thread is just one I grabbed from the web.

Edit - just searching the web, it looks like the Thai Mouse one grows down, not up? (siling labuyo grows up)

www.pepperseeds.eu/thai-little-red-chili.html

Yeah you are probably right on that. Frankly I never looked closely enough at the differences, just assumed they were Prik Kee Noo Suan. From recollection I suspect the ones I used to grow were then also Siling Labuyo as they were shorter and straighter than the ones I see now shown as the Prik Kee Noo Suan .

I think that link has a wrong type for Prik Kee Noo Suan. All other source photos show an upright chilli, but definitely more elongated and often bent as you highlighted.

thehippyseedcompany.com/product/prik-kee-noo-suan/ is a better source imo...

anyway, thanks for the info. I'm not a chili expert and don't particularly enjoy really hot stuff, but it's been fun growing them from seeds taken from the wild plants

underoath - thanks for the offer on the really hot one. (that looks like it could be called a "dried dog doins from the nature strip" chili

If you enjoy listening to podcasts and want to know more about Chilis you should give Chuck and Josh a listen to on "How Stuff Works". Its free, just go to iTunes and download the 'Red Hot Chilis - not the band' episode.

I would also recommend listening to the episode on 'Road Rage Argg'. (Everyone should)