Can Jalapenos be really hot? Or are these not jalapenos?

[gillespieza]

I have a pepper growing in a container (~20cm pot) and I was sure it was a jalapeno - I mean, it looks like a jalapeno, right?

I let them ripen all the way to red, and when I tried to use them in supper one night, whooo boy! They are hotter than the cayenne peppers I grow, and my fingers stung for 3 days after chopping them up (next time, I'll use gloves to handle them). 2 small ones made dinner almost unbearable - my ear canals hurt!

My prior experience of jalapenos has always been as green ones, usually stuffed with cheese and deep-fried in a batter, and they've been spicy but pleasant. These were ... well, possibly I'm just a chilli "wuss", but they were vicious.

I've looked around the Google, and pictures also look similar to Thai Birds Eye, or possibly Serrano? We don't really have a culture of named chillis here in SA. If you buy chillis at the supermarket, they are usually just all jumbled up - green, red, large, small, funny shaped, whatever - and they are all sold by weight as just "chillis".

Any experts out there willing to hazard an opinion? I have a friend from New Mexico - everyone from NM is a chilli expert, right? Well, they thought it looked like jalapeno in the photo too. I just can't believe they can really be as hot as these were.


(The ruler is in centimeters)





Here's the plant in it's pot (looking a little sadder now - probably needs some feeding or potting up, tbh) - on the right edge of the photo. You can see the green pods developing if you look closely

[applestar]

Just off-hand those look a little bit too pointy and narrow for jalapeño to me. Except for occasional exceptions, mine had more rounded end. I'm thinking they were a bit wider at the top too -- so more triangular but with blunt/rounded end?

Bees do cause peppers to cross too if they are grown close to each other.

[tomc]

Those could well be jalapeno. Fresh with membrane and seed in is going to be a LOT hotter.

Brined and seedless will be milder.

[imafan26]

Jalapenos can be hot or not, but compared to other peppers they are usually not really hot. I think your peppers look more like the bird peppers although I have to admit I have not seen a bird pepper that color, but peppers can cross so it may be a hybrid.

Jalapenos remind me of the old large christmas light bulbs. They are triangular in shape and blunt at the tip. Serranos are similar to Jalapenos but are more slender at the shoulders and a bit hotter.

[MB3]

definitely looks like a jalapneo to me. thier heat can be all over the place, maybe moreso than any other. I have also had mild habaneros that were more just the sweet fruity side grown more on par with my usual habs.

as said above, they can also cross (with most of the other peppers many people usually grow in the states).

[vaparks]

The more wrinkles and dips that a jalapenos has, the hotter it is.

[outdoorjim]

They look like jalapenos.

I've known jalapenos to have a fair bit of zing but nothing like what you describe. Generally they are not so hot that you can't eat a whole one raw.

[gillespieza]

I think I'll call them "weaponized jalapenos"

[MB3]

I have friends right now griping that their purple jalapenos aren't germinating. I am sad too, since I will be trading things from growouts. Here's hoping they get them to germinate and grow, I want some, and want to save seeds.