Pepper heat
Pepper genus Capsicum
Chile peppers (Capsicum species), the perennial shrubs, peppers, belonging to the Capsicum family, are eaten by a quarter of the earth’s population every day, in countries all over the globe.
Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae native to the Americas cultivated worldwide for their chilli pepper of bell pepper fruit.
The name may come from Latin capsa, meaning 'box', presumably alluding to the pods.
Capsicum fruits are botanically classified as berries and are commonly used as a vegetable ingredient or side dish.
Carolina Reaper - the hottest chilli pepper globally.
Scoville organoleptic test - adapted from Wikipedia
The test procedure
Scoville heat unit examples:
1,500,000–3,000,000+ -pepper spray - Carolina Reaper pepper.
The Reaper (see above) is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. In 2013, Guinness World Records declared it the hottest chilli pepper globally, surpassing the previous record-holder, the Trinidad Scorpion.
The varieties I grew were not nearly as hot.
25,000–50,000 Cayenne pepper, Bishop Crown pepper, Tabasco chilli
2,500–10,000 Jalapeno pepper
0–100 Bell pepper
Learn more about these in varieties grown.