That pic looks like a pollinated flower with tiny fruits all over it... but honestly, what do I know? I've never seen anything like it.

Interesting. You may have some new type of pepper plant if these produce viable pods.

Next time you take a photo of that thing, take your shot gun along. The flash from the camera could startle it.

Thank you all for your comments / input. I have been a grower by trade for 14 years, and have NEVER encountered such a thing with peppers. Will be interesting to see if the plant is actually fruitful. If it is - I'm sure it will be the most productive pepper plant ever!!!! This is the first year I've tried this variety, so let's hope its yummy. :)

Jaluv An Attitude Hot Pepper

This coup by amateur breeder Relentless has at least three kinds of peppers in its pedigree, although it looks like a jalapeño in both shape and size. In the breeder’s own words: “If I had to have one chili on a desert island, it used to be a jalapeño. Now maybe not. This new chili is the result of a cross between an open-pollinated jalapeño and (my own) original that was called 45° N Attitude. The object was to have a thicker-skinned 45° with a lot of jalapeño flavor. The 45° N had thin skin, delicious hot fruity flavor, and dried and produced well in northern latitudes. My overriding intent in crossing them was to obtain the best combination of both.”

Maybe if he adds the heart of a C. chinense, the bollocks of a C. baccatum or the thick walls of a C. pubences his Frankenstein will bear normal fruit?

Esox07,

LMAO...

That is truly fascinating. And incredibly disturbing.....let us know how it turns out!

No, don't pull it unless you absolutely need the space or something. This is really fascinating. I missed the part that all of your flowers were like this, which makes it even more gnarly!

Keep it please! I want to see how it ends, and given that I can find very little information about it (not to mention nothing that looks close it) it's worth at least something as a stock photo or update the NIH...or something. Do you have a shot of the whole plant?

I still laugh at Esox's comment though, no matter how many times I read it LOL.

I know - it's kind of like I have to keep it! I don't need the space. I added 3 new 3 x 60 beds this year. Sounded like a great idea at the time, but now that produce is coming in, I will be spending every evening after work picking, cooking, canning, or freezing. I'll try to get more pictures tomorrow. I need to fertilize too - so we'll see just how big those mutant clusters can get!

EK, what are your monsters doing now?

Still producing the mutant clusters. They end up like this.

Not a single one gets pollinated, huh? Maybe try hand-pollinating one flower, though I guess I don't really see a real "flower" on the beasts.

Do you have a shot of the whole plant? Is it big?
Are all the plants around it growing normally?

Grace you are right. There are no real flowers. I need to take a picture of the whole plant. Peppers aren't doing that great here this year, so the plant is not huge - but is the size of the surrounding peppers. All other plants are growing normal. I have about 30 hot pepper plants this year, and 4 of this variety - and they are all fine.

Such an interesting mutation, bummer it's such a dead end

Eine derartige Pflanze wächst bei mir im Garten. Kann man die Früchte auch verwenden?

Rolf.Kleinschmidt67@gmail.com