QUALITY FACTORS OF WILD CHILI PEPPER (Capsicum annuum L. var. glabriusculum) SEEDS

Abstract

One of the ways in which the seeds of wild chili peppers are dispersed by birds. These peppers have thus been widely dispersed across northeastern Mexico. It is important to know the phenotypic similarities and differences between the communities of wild chili peppers in order to understand the differences identified in their behavior and domestication. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the morphological characteristics (size) of the fruits on the quality of the seeds utilized for the propagation of this species in the nursery. Two sources of fruits of piquin pepper were used: the community of Oyama, in Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, and a community of Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico. The germplasm was extracted manually at the forest seed laboratory of Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. In this study the number of seeds was observed to vary according to the size of the fruit of origin: large fruits contain an average 20.55 seeds each, compared to the medium-sized (12.75 seeds/fruit) and small fruits (10.95 seeds/fruit). 206.500 seeds from large fruits, 19 600 seeds from medium sized fruits, and 97 900 from small fruits are required to make up one kilogram. There were no statistically significant differences in the variables weight of 1 000 seeds and seed diameter related to the size of fruits of origin or to the source sites.