Red Pepper turning purple

[caters]

Last year I left the ripe red bell pepper on the plant for a while. I saw it start to turn purple and associated this with further ripening.

I have seen so far if I leave a bell pepper on the plant:

Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red -> Purple(With red flesh on the inside)

And I suppose that if I leave it on the plant past its purple stage that it will turn brown and dry up.

I looked up purple bell pepper and the sites that I have read say that most purple bell peppers are not a result of further ripening of a red bell pepper but of a variety that is purple on the outside and often green on the inside when it starts ripening.

Could this be because of blue pigment starting to form in the pepper and that theoretically if I left it on there for a longer time I would get a blue bell pepper?

[caters]

here is a picture of the transition:
-> ->->->

And here is the theoretical next step:

[imafan26]

I've never had a red pepper turn purple before. I have some purple varieties that turned red afterwards. Usually after red, I get shriveled and rotten.

[applestar]

Haha that particular blue is just not possible I think

For some reason, in the colder autumn weather, some of my peppers have expressed dark streaks and shades that I associate with sun "tan" in antho tomatoes. Not the entire fruit though.

Maybe the fluctuating extreme temperatures break down the normal pigments and make them more susceptible to sun so they try to protect themselves with the anthocyanin pigments if they have that in their gene expression?

[caters]

maybe it is the anthocyanins. I know that anthocyanins depending upon the pH can be red, purple, or blue. It is what gives blueberries their blue color and is synthesized in leaves after the chlorophyll breaks down.

[caters]

specifically blue anthocyanins means more alkaline and red anthocyanins means more acidic. So the blue peppers that you see if you look in google images are probably peppers bred to be more alkaline than your regular bell pepper.

So because of how my peppers turn purple as a 5th stage of ripeness they are probably more alkaline to some degree and maybe continue to get more alkaline after they have passed their acidic stage.

[caters]

I've never had a red pepper turn purple before. I have some purple varieties that turned red afterwards. Usually after red, I get shriveled and rotten.

shriveled in any case usually means drying up and letting go of its juices. shriveled apples are still moist but are letting go of their juices.

They could naturally be sun drying on the plant and sun drying is an old fashioned way of preserving food(You can do it for fruits, vegetables, and even meats).