Pepper
Capsicum annuum · Nightshade family
Plant portrait
Sweet peppers bear glossy fruits, rounded or pointed depending on the variety. Their colour changes as they ripen and does not always end in red.
Harvested part
The fruits of sweet pepper varieties.
What to watch for
Watch the flowers and then the swelling fruits. Peppers may be picked green or riper depending on use; compare their colour with what is expected for your variety.
Growth stages of the pepper
Plotilo illustrates the pepper in 7 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing, flowering, developing fruit and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Flowering
Flowers are shown before fruit begins to form.
- Developing fruit
Fruit begins to develop on the plant.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the pepper (the nightshade family): the tomato, the aubergine, the litchi tomato, the chilli pepper, the pepino, the potato and 1 more plants from the catalogue. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.