Floral Gem
Floral Gem is a Capsicum annuum cultivar from United States. Capsi’s sourced range is 1,000–5,000 SHU (Vendor Claim). Flavor is sweet, spicy. Used for pickling, fresh eating, salsa, hot dogs. Heat is a range, not a single marketing number.
Floral Gem is a short yellow-wax chile that ripens from pale yellow through orange to red. It is grown for pickling and for the mix of colors on a compact plant.
About 1/6.4 the typical heat of a Capsi Jalapeño (31,902 SHU).
Growing
~75 days to maturity
Fruit size
3–7 cm
Flavor & Use
Sweet flesh with a clean medium bite. Yellow fruit stays milder after pickling. Fully red pods taste spicier and a little fruitier.
Culinary
About
Pods are conical to cylindrical, about 3 to 7 cm long, with glossy wax skin, an indented blossom end, and medium-thick walls. They start pale or greenish yellow, pass through orange, and finish red. Heat is medium, with sweet flesh and a clean bite. Plants are open-pollinated and mid-season, usually 50 to 90 cm tall in full sun. Pick yellow fruit for classic jar pickles, or let them color up for fresh eating and cooking.
Backstory
The cultivar was already in the US seed trade by the early 1960s, when Petoseed released Floral Grande as a larger, higher-yielding Floral Gem type. Yellow pods have long been packed as Torrido pickles, including by Trappey's in Louisiana. Paul Smith at UC Davis later used Floral Gem in the work that produced Caloro and Santa Fe Grande. Shop pages that list Bolivia are describing the species, not a documented birthplace for this named line.
Appearance
Growing
Heritage
ExploreNothing reputable documents a pedigree for this pepper.
Sources
FAQ
- How hot is Floral Gem?
- Capsi’s sourced range is 1,000–5,000 SHU (Vendor Claim). Capsi uses a sourced range and a trust tier, not a single marketing number. How we verify heat: https://web.thecapsi.app/learn/heat-and-capsaicin/how-we-measure-heat
- What does Floral Gem taste like?
- Sweet flesh with a clean medium bite. Yellow fruit stays milder after pickling. Fully red pods taste spicier and a little fruitier.
- How do I grow Floral Gem?
- Floral Gem: about 75 days to maturity, temperate climate, full sun, hardiness zones 9-11.
- What can I substitute for Floral Gem?
- Santa Fe Grande, Hungarian Wax, Cascabella