Seeds – Chile de Arbol

The Chile de rbol (Spanish for tree chili) is a small Mexican chile pepper with a medium heat, also known as bird’s beak chile and rat’s tail chile.

An extremely popular and versatile chile, it is often used as a base for salsa casera, or table sauce/salsa of the house.

Despite the name, the plants are relatively small (45cm tall approx) making them perfect for pots, and in the right climate they also produce heavily for several years as a perennial.

These chiles are about 5 to 7.5 cm long, and up to 1 cm in diameter. Their heat index is between 15,000 – 30,000 Scoville units. The peppers start out green and turn a bright red color as they mature. Chile de rbol peppers can be found fresh, dried, or powdered. As dried chiles, they are often used to decorate wreaths because they do not lose their red color after dehydration.

PHOTO: By Yair Geva – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16733437