James H. Schutte
CAPSICUM annuum 'Medusa'( Fasciculatum Group)
Plant Common Name
Medusa Ornamental Pepper, Ornamental Pepper
The bright red, orange or yellow peppers of 'Medusa' lend outstanding bedding color to the summer and pre-frost fall garden. This ornamental pepper variety is compact and produce lots of colorful fruits that are spicy when eaten but tend to be grown for looks rather than flavor.
Peppers originate from the tropical Americas, so they are well adapted to heat, humidity and some drought. They are annuals that produce bushy plants with rigid, brittle stems and thin, often broad, dark green leaves. Their flowers are inconspicuous, five-petaled and white.
The upright, narrowly conical peppers of 'Medusa' often ripple and twist, mimicking the snaked head of the Greek mythical namesake. Fruits are green when immature but progressively turn yellow to orange and finally red. On the interior they are lined with spongy ribbing which supports many small, flattened, rounded seeds. The majority of the fruit’s heat comes from the inner lining, ribs and seeds, so cook peppers whole if you want to impart their flavor without adding any spice.
Green fruits have a sharper taste and mature are sweeter. The heat is produced by a chemical called capsaicin, which is measured in scaled units called Scoville units. The purer the capsaicin the hotter the pepper and higher the Scoville rating. The pepper’s seeds and inner lining carry more heat than the flesh of the fruit.
Peppers are warm-season vegetables that are easy to grow if provided full sun, warmth and fertile, perfectly drained soil. Regular feeding is required for good growth and fruit production. Medusa peppers generally take 72 days to develop after seedlings are transplanted outdoors after the threat of frost passes in spring. Some vascular wilts, tobacco mosaic virus and fungal problems can befall them, but overall they are not needy. Proper spacing will keep diseases at bay and help with fruit production, so plant according to the grower’s guidelines.
Scoville Scale: http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp