FW: Pretty New Pepper Plants Developed by ARS

**"* J* R* <l*@hevanet.com>**

A new pepper that would be worth writing about.

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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:15:35 -0500
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Pretty New Pepper Plants Developed by ARS

STORY LEAD:
Pretty New Pepper Plants Developed by ARS

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Kim Kaplan, (301) 504-1637, Kaplan@ars.usda.gov
March 18, 2004
___________________________________________

Pepper plants not only produce tasty garden vegetables, but also can be
just plain pretty. Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service
have bred a new duo of ornamental peppers for the home and garden.

Tangerine Dream, the first of the new pair of peppers from ARS, is
already available commercially. The plant produces small, orange,
banana-shaped edible fruit on a prostrate plant and makes an attractive
ground cover for the garden.

A second variety, to be released this summer, also features novel fruit
and foliage that should appeal to the same market as the popular
black-leaved sweet potato vine.

ARS plant geneticists John Stommel and Robert Griesbach were drawn to
the idea of developing these new colorful ornamentals for the garden and
the house because considerable diversity exists in the Capsicum (pepper)
genus for fruit and leaf shape, size and color. Stommel is with the
agency's Vegetable Laboratory, and Griesbach is with the Floral and
Nursery Plants Research Unit, both part of ARS's Henry A. Wallace
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Md.

The new varieties were developed jointly with the Pan American Seed Co.
of Elburn, IL. Additional research and development of more new varieties
continues with McCorkle Nurseries Inc., of Dearing, Ga.

Ornamental peppers have become a profitable crop for house plant
growers as well as an alternative for home gardeners. The ornamental
plant market in the United States is worth nearly $5 billion annually.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research agency.
___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
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