Plants of the World Online, Kew's taxonomic database, accepts 43 species of Capsicum. Five of those carry cultivated peppers: C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens and C. pubescens. The other 38 grow wild, most of them in Brazil, Bolivia and the Andes, and almost none of them reach a seed catalog.
The 43 accepted species
Author citation, year of first valid publication, and native range come straight from the POWO record for each name. Ranges use Kew's own compass abbreviations.
| Accepted name. | Published. | Native range per POWO. |
| C. annuum L. | 1753 | S. U.S.A. to Brazil, Caribbean. |
| C. baccatum L. | 1767 | Colombia to N. Argentina and C. & S. Brazil. |
| C. benoistii Hunz. ex Barboza | 2019 | C. & S. Ecuador. |
| C. caatingae Barboza & Agra | 2011 | NE. Brazil (to N. Minas Gerais). |
| C. caballeroi M.Nee | 2006 | C. & SC. Bolivia. |
| C. campylopodium Sendtn. | 1846 | SE. Brazil. |
| C. carassense Barboza & Bianch. | 2020 | Brazil (SE. Minas Gerais). |
| C. cardenasii Heiser & P.G.Sm. | 1958 | W. Bolivia. |
| C. ceratocalyx M.Nee | 2006 | WC. Bolivia. |
| C. chacoense Hunz. | 1950 | Bolivia to Paraguay and N. Argentina. |
| C. chinense Jacq. | 1777 | S. Guyana to SW. Suriname and N. Brazil. |
| C. coccineum (Rusby) Hunz. | 1954 | Peru to Bolivia and WNW. Brazil. |
| C. cornutum (Hiern) Hunz. | 1954 | Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo). |
| C. dimorphum (Miers) Kuntze | 1891 | Colombia, S. Ecuador, C. Peru. |
| C. eshbaughii Barboza | 2011 | C. Bolivia. |
| C. eximium Hunz. | 1950 | Bolivia to NW. Argentina. |
| C. flexuosum Sendtn. | 1846 | SE. & S. Brazil to NE. Argentina. |
| C. friburgense Bianch. & Barboza | 2005 | Brazil (C. Rio de Janeiro). |
| C. frutescens L. | 1753 | S. Mexico to Trop. America. |
| C. galapagoense Hunz. | 1954 | Galápagos. |
| C. geminifolium (Dammer) Hunz. | 1954 | Colombia to Peru. |
| Capsicum hookerianum (Miers) Kuntze | 1891 | W. & SW. Ecuador to NW. Peru. |
| C. hunzikerianum Barboza & Bianch. | 2005 | Brazil (SE. São Paulo). |
| C. lanceolatum (Greenm.) C.V.Morton & Standl. | 1940 | C. Mexico to Honduras. |
| Capsicum leptopodum (Dunal) Kuntze | 1891 | Brazil (CE. Rio de Janeiro). |
| C. longidentatum Agra & Barboza | 2011 | Brazil (Pernambuco to N. Minas Gerais). |
| C. longifolium Barboza & S.Leiva | 2019 | S. Ecuador to N. Peru. |
| C. lycianthoides Bitter | 1921 | Colombia to Ecuador. |
| C. minutiflorum (Rusby) Hunz. | 1954 | WC. & C. Bolivia. |
| C. mirabile Sendtn. | 1846 | E. Brazil. |
| Capsicum mirum Barboza | 2022 | Brazil (SE. São Paulo). |
| C. neei Barboza & X.Reyes | 2019 | C. & S. Bolivia. |
| C. parvifolium Sendtn. | 1846 | N. Colombia to N. Venezuela, NE. Brazil (to N. Minas Gerais). |
| C. pereirae Barboza & Bianch. | 2005 | E. Brazil. |
| C. piuranum Barboza & S.Leiva | 2019 | NW. Peru. |
| C. pubescens Ruiz & Pav. | 1799 | Peru to Bolivia. |
| C. rabenii Sendtn. | 1846 | C. & S. Brazil to Paraguay. |
| C. recurvatum Witasek | 1910 | SE. & S. Brazil. |
| C. regale Barboza & Bohs | 2020 | S. Colombia to NW. Peru. |
| C. rhomboideum (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Dunal) Kuntze | 1891 | Mexico to N. Venezuela and N. Peru. |
| C. schottianum Sendtn. | 1846 | SE. Brazil. |
| C. tovarii Eshbaugh, P.G.Sm. & Nickrent | 1983 | C. Peru. |
| C. villosum Sendtn. | 1846 | SE. Brazil. |
How many Capsicum species are there?
Forty-three, if you follow Kew. That matches Barboza et al. (2022). Other databases land elsewhere. USDA GRIN and older floras still carry names that Kew has folded into synonymy, and hobby seed lists cheerfully invent species that no botanist ever described. The count also moves upward: C. mirum arrived in 2022, and five more of the 43 entered the literature between 2019 and 2020.
Which of these are domesticated?
Five species, and a sixth depending on how strict you want to be. C. annuum covers bell peppers, jalapeños, cayennes and the New Mexican types. C. chinense carries the habaneros and every superhot on the superhot list. C. frutescens gives you tabasco and the African bird types. C. baccatum holds the South American ajis. C. pubescens stands alone as the black-seeded highland species behind Rocoto and the manzanos. Some authors treat C. chacoense as semi-domesticated in the Gran Chaco, and Kew draws no such line.
Names Kew does not accept
Grower forums and seed vendors circulate several names that POWO rejects. Check these before you write a label.
| Name in common use. | What POWO says. |
| C. praetermissum Heiser & P.G.Sm. | Synonym of C. rabenii Sendtn. |
| Capsicum anomalum Franch. & Sav. | Not a Capsicum; the accepted name is Tubocapsicum anomalum. |
| C. muticum (Sendtn.) Barboza | Synonym of Capsicum leptopodum. |
| C. tomentosum (Sendtn.) Kuntze | Moved out of the genus to Athenaea tomentosa. |
| C. annuum var. glabriusculum | Synonym of C. annuum var. aviculare, the accepted name for the wild form. |
| Capsicum wildenowii G.Don | Carried as doubtful, with no accepted placement. |
That varietal row matters to anyone growing Chiltepin. Almost every seed vendor, this database included, labels wild bird peppers var. glabriusculum. Kew files that name under var. aviculare. Both point at the same plant, and the difference will not ruin a grow, but a herbarium sheet or a genebank request wants the accepted epithet.
Where the wild species live
Brazil dominates. Fourteen accepted species occur nowhere else, most of them in the Atlantic Forest of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais. That group includes C. campylopodium, C. cornutum, C. friburgense, C. hunzikerianum, C. leptopodum, C. mirum, C. recurvatum, C. schottianum and C. villosum. Bolivia holds a second cluster: C. caballeroi, C. cardenasii, C. ceratocalyx, C. eshbaughii, C. minutiflorum and C. neei. The Andean slopes of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia hold a third. Only C. galapagoense sits on an island, and only C. lanceolatum, C. rhomboideum and the two Linnaean crops reach Mexico or points north.
Why cite this list rather than a seed catalog
POWO is not a vote. Each accepted name traces to a published treatment, with the type specimen and the protologue attached. When a name changes there, a botanist argued the case in print first. A vendor's species list carries no such trail, and a forum consensus carries none at all. If you are recording an accession, applying to a genebank, or arguing about whether two wild collections match, cite the POWO record and its LSID. Our taxonomy guide lays out how the ranks fit together, and the wild pepper overview covers what remains unresolved.
Sources & Further Reading
- Plants of the World Online. Capsicum L. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. List cross-checked against the Kew World Checklist of Vascular Plants, September 2026.
- Barboza, G.E., C. Carrizo García, et al. Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers (Capsicum L., Solanaceae). PhytoKeys 200: 1-423, 2022.
- Barboza, G.E., et al. Four new species of Capsicum from the tropical Andes and an update on the phylogeny of the genus. PLOS ONE 14(1): e0209792, 2019.
- USDA ARS. GRIN-Global taxonomy for Capsicum, useful for comparison with the Kew treatment.
- Priest, C.T., and D.J. Austin. The Chile Pepper Almanac. Harambe Publishing, 2026. Amazon
- WikiPepper. Species, Landraces and Cultivars, and the classification systems overview.