Saturday

Bhut Jolokia World's Hottest chili pepper


Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.

In replicated tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of Red Savina, which measured a mere 577,000.

Very challenging to grow. Requires relatively high temperatures to germinate and has a long growing period, so, for warm climates or conservatories only

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Garlic or Amethyst Vine

What stunning specimen. After the freeze here on the gulf coast seems to ravish most of my tropical's I was unable to cover, we'll start anew with a Garlic vine. All parts of the vine, when rubbed or crushed will smell like garlic and can be used in food.

Latin: Mansoa alliacea (Pseudocalymma alliaceum)
Family: Bignoniaceae
English: Garlic Vine
 

The vines of the Garlic Vine attach itself with strong twining tendrils. The leaves are bright green and up to 15 cm long. The flowers are first beautiful deep lavender and have a white throat. Later the flowers fade to a pale lavender and finally become almost white. All three flower colors can be found on the plant simultaneously.
Abundant bloom finds place two or more times during the rainy season. In other months incidental clusters of flowers appear. The flowers are regularly visited by hummingbirds looking for nectar.

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