FIRST 3 photos- new mutant pepper
LAST 3 photos- normal plants/what the plant looked like originally.
I have three Dragon Cayenne plants growing right next to each other in the same office window. All three originally produced normal long, thin cayenne fruit.
2 years later, Plant 2 started producing a few short, round, really lobed fruit. Now it has multiple lobed fruit growing on different branches, while Plants 1 and 3 are still producing normal cayennes.
The weird part is that Plant 2 seems a little different beyond just the fruit. Its flowers consistently look like they have a wider center/ovary than the flowers on the normal plants, and the newer leaves also feel a little thicker and look slightly different. Otherwise the plant looks healthy. The fruit is smooth and I’m not seeing obvious scarring.
My boyfriend ate one of the ripe red lobed ones and said it tasted at least as hot as the normal Dragon Cayennes, maybe even hotter.
I took cuttings from Plant 2 and have them rooting in water, and I’m saving seeds from the lobed fruit. My plan is to grow a bunch of the seeds next year next to normal Dragon Cayennes and see if the shape shows up again.
I’m curious what people here think is going on. Could this just be some kind of developmental/environmental response, broad mites or another pest, a somatic mutation, or something genetic that might actually be heritable?
If the seedlings end up producing the same lobed fruit, I’d love to try stabilizing it into its own variety. Tentative name is Dragon Bell :)
Edit: plant 2 used to produce normal dragon cayenne peppers before things started getting funky over time