9 Bizarre Chili Pepper Varieties

1. Peachgum Tiger Pepper

The Peachgum Tiger pepper variety is one of the most bizarre peppers that we have grown (thus far). The pods ripen from deep purple, almost black, to a peachy orange color.

Read more about the 7 Pot Bubblegum here

To top it off, the calyx of the peppers extends in a flower shape and retains the dark purple color of the unripe pods. This unstable cross likely comes from crossing the Bubblegum pepper with one of the dark foliage C. chinense varieties. Weird, super spicy, and quirky – what’s not to love?

2. Sugar Rush Stripey Pepper

The sugar rush stripey is one of the only varieties of pepper known to ripen to a striped appearance. It changes from light green to peachy orange and finally to contrasting orange and red stripes.

Hailing from the C. baccatum species, this pepper was a variant of the sugar rush peach pepper. The flavor is similar, with lots of sweetness and medium heat. The strange world of peppers just keeps getting better!

3. Paradeisfrüchtiger Gelber

Translated from German, this name means “yellow tomato pepper.” And indeed, it does look more like a wrinkly heirloom tomato than a pepper! The flavor is sweet and delicious, much like a bell pepper. It also has nice thick walls and a crunchy texture.

They have no heat at all, making them a great option for the family garden. They are moderately prolific, but not super productive. Try the paradeisfrüchtiger gelber pepper as a quirky replacement for one of your sweet pepper plants.

4. Fish Pepper

Fish peppers are known for their incredible variegated foliage. The plant leaves are green with white stripes and spots throughout. They make a beautiful decorative plant.

But the colors don’t stop on the leaves. Fish pepper fruits themselves go through an incredible transformation as they ripen. Peppers turn from striped white and green to orange and finally to a deep red.

Fish peppers also carry an interesting history. Learn all about fish peppers in our article about them here.

5. Black Panther Pepper

The black panther pepper was born from a cross. The original two pepper varieties were the bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) and the pimenta da neyde. The result is a fiercely spicy pepper with a strange and unique ripening pattern.

The peppers will start off almost entirely black in color, eventually ripening to a bright red or orange (depending on the type). This coloration is thanks to the genetics from the pimenta de neyde, an almost entirely black plant, foliage and peppers both. Many more amazing varieties were born from breeding with the neyde pepper!

Read more about Black Panther peppers here

6. Macedonian Rezha Pepper

The Macedonian rezha stands out due to the intense corking on the pepper’s skin. The genetics of the rezha give the peppers their distinctive look, so the white marks are not unhealthy or inedible.

The peppers are also large, growing to 8 inches or longer. The amount of corking varies on the peppers, but they typically grow to be covered completely by the striation marks. The rezha is another odd spicy pepper that you can easily grow at home.

7. Carolina Reaper

Through the methods of plant breeding, people have been able to produce strange hybrid varieties of existing peppers. The Carolina reaper currently holds the official record for the world’s hottest pepper.

Clocking in at a whopping 2.2 million SHUs on the Scoville scale, the reaper is mind-blowingly spicy. The pepper also looks like it comes straight from the underworld.

You better be brave to grow (or even touch) these peppers. One tiny drop of pepper juice from a reaper can cause serious pain, even on your skin. Beware!

Want to see something even more strange? Check out the purple reaper here!

8. Habanada Pepper

Taking a hard left turn from the hottest pepper, the habanada pepper was bred to have the flavor of a habanero, with no heat. These peppers come in at 0 SHUs on the Scoville scale, but they have the familiar, floral flavor of the habanero pepper.

The habanada also has a beautiful orange color with an interesting wrinkled texture. They may look like a hot pepper, but they’re no hotter than your standard green bell pepper! Grow them yourself and fool your friends into thinking you can handle eating a raw habanero!

9. Jay’s Peach Ghost Scorpion

Perhaps our favorite ‘ghost’ variety, the peach ghost scorpion was created by Jay Weaver. This gnarly-looking variety was an accidental cross between the bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) and a scorpion pepper.

The plants are extremely vigorous and produce lots of pods with peculiar shapes. Ideal fruits are over 3.5″ long with long, curly tails. The peach color gives a false sense of sweetness – make no mistake, these peppers are hot!