Mediterranean Biome lit up with chilli exhibition
The Eden Project has assembled its largest showing of chillies to date, including the notorious Carolina Reaper.
The wet, overcast summer has provided the perfect conditions indoors for the exhibit, which include the ornate tinkerbell, intriguing medusa among the varieties of chilli on show.
The display contains more than 300 plants which are made up of 34 different cultivars and represent all five of the major species of cultivated chillies.
The range of chillies sport many shapes and colours within the display including fruits that are purple, black, and green, as well as some stripy variations.
Six of the cultivars being grown this year are from seed the Eden Project team have had in storage since 1999, the time when the organisation began acquiring seeds for early plantings.
“We are delighted to be able to showcase so many different types of chilli in our exhibit this year and to educate our visitors about the fascinating and unique attributes each cultivar possess,” says Catherine Cutler, the Eden Project’s interim head of horticulture.
“Autumn is a fantastic time to enjoy our entire site, with the relaxing Outdoor Gardens rich with the colours of the season, many intriguing plants growing in our Mediterranean Biome and the recent exciting addition of the Tahina spectabilis to our Rainforest Biome. It’s great to see our visitors continue to engage with our wonderful living exhibits and the important stories they tell.”
Initially sown as a test to see if they would germinate, the plants, consisting of pimento, banana sweet, tennessee cheese, rocoto yellow, aji panca and alma paprika, are performing strongly.
The sizes of chilli plants on show range from ones that could fit into a small pot on a windowsill to some that grow into a small tree.
Their heat ranges from zero up to a staggering 2.2 million on the Scoville heat scale – higher than some law enforcement-grade pepper sprays.
The Eden Project’s horticulture team have found that while the exhibit is indoors, the outdoor light levels have had a major impact on the growth of the chillies.
One of the notable cultivars being grown as part of the exhibit is tinkerbell. Unusually, this chilli’s heat is not evenly distributed. The pungency is concentrated in the fruit’s central core, while its outer wing-shaped area has no noticeable heat at all.
Also in the Mediterranean Biome, the horticulture team have been working to create a thriving citrus display full of varieties such as satsumas, clementine, navel and blood oranges.
These fruits can be seen ripening in abundance with the display set to shine for weeks to come.
It has been an exciting past two weeks for the Eden Project, as last week it announced the addition of its rarest plant to its collection.