Most peppers hang green until they ripen. A large minority do not. Their unripe pods come out purple, near black, ivory, cream or striped, and the plant only develops its final colour weeks later. Two separate genetic switches explain almost all of it: one adds anthocyanin on top of the chlorophyll, the other takes chlorophyll away. This page lists the varieties in the WikiPepper database whose immature pods are not green, plus the entries that circulate on lists like this one without holding up.
What makes an unripe pod purple?
Anthocyanin. Borovsky and colleagues mapped the A locus that controls anthocyanin in pepper fruit to chromosome 10 and showed it encodes a MYB transcription factor homologous to Anthocyanin2 of petunia. Where that gene switches on, the pod loads purple pigment over the chlorophyll already there, which is why a purple immature pod usually reads almost black in strong sun and greener in shade. A separate locus, CaPs, drives the purple striping some unripe fruits carry, and it turns out to be an R2R3-MYB factor as well.
In most varieties the anthocyanin breaks down as the fruit ripens and carotenoids take over, so Buena Mulata goes purple to red and nobody thinks of it as a purple pepper. A smaller group holds the pigment right through ripening. Pimenta da Neyde is the reference case, and the WikiPepper UPN pattern code PA marks exactly that trait. Ripe colour and immature colour run on different genetics, which is why the table below needs both columns.
Why are some unripe pods white or cream?
Missing chlorophyll rather than added pigment. Two genes set how much chlorophyll an immature pepper fruit builds, CaGLK2 and CaAPRR2, with GLK2 doing most of the work. Researchers found a premature stop codon in PRR2, caused by a single guanine to adenine substitution, in sweet peppers whose immature fruit comes out white. The pod has almost no chlorophyll to show, so it reads ivory or cream. Carotenoid synthesis runs on separate genes, so these varieties still ripen to perfectly normal red, orange or yellow.
Striped and variegated immature pods are the same mechanism applied unevenly. Sectors of the fruit wall build chlorophyll and neighbouring sectors do not, which gives the green-on-cream stripes that make Fish pepper recognisable at ten paces. Plants with variegated foliage usually carry the trait into the pods.
Varieties with non-green immature pods
Every row below matches a record in the WikiPepper database, and the immature colour comes from that record. Species runs across C. annuum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, C. chacoense, C. eximium and the wild glabriusculum tepins, so this is not an annuum quirk.
| Variety | Immature pod | Ripens to | Species | Also listed as |
| Jalapeño Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Purple Jalapeño |
| Black Pearl | Purple | Black | C. annuum | |
| Filius Blue | Purple | Blue | C. annuum | |
| NuMex Twilight | Purple | Multicolor/Irregular | C. annuum | |
| Purple Beauty Bell | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Royal Black | Purple | Black | C. annuum | Royal Black Strain |
| Trifetti | White/Cream | Red | C. annuum | |
| Bolivian Rainbow | Purple | Multicolor/Irregular | C. annuum | Bolivian Rainbow Strain |
| Chupetinho Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | Chupetinho Black, Chupetinho Roxa |
| Pimenta da Neyde | Purple | Red | C. chinense | |
| Aurora | Purple | Multicolor/Irregular | C. annuum | |
| Snow White | White/Cream | White/Cream | C. chinense | |
| Alba | White/Cream | Red | C. annuum | Alba Regia |
| Alba Orange | White/Cream | Red | C. annuum | |
| Prairie Fire | Purple | Multicolor/Irregular | C. frutescens | |
| Sangria | Purple | Crimson/Burgundy | C. annuum | |
| Explosive Ember | Purple | Red | C. annuum | |
| Chinese 5 Color | Purple | Red | C. annuum | Chinese Five Color |
| Masquerade | Purple | Multicolor/Irregular | C. annuum | Masquerade Ornamentals |
| Buena Mulata | Purple | Red | C. annuum | Buena Mulata Ornamental |
| UFO Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Purple UFO |
| Poinsettia | Purple | Red | C. annuum | |
| Black Hungarian | Purple | Black | C. annuum | |
| Purple Flash | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Purple Flash Ornamental |
| Peruvian Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Serrano Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Purple Serrano |
| Purple Bell | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Lavender Bell |
| Cayenne Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | Purple Cayenne, Purple Cayenne Strain |
| Midnight Dream | Purple | Black | C. annuum | Midnight Dreams |
| Midnight | Purple | Black | C. annuum | Midnight Star |
| Candy Cane | White/Cream | Red | C. annuum | Candy Cane Stripe |
| Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry | White/Cream | Brown/Chocolate | C. annuum | |
| Czech Black | Purple | Black | C. annuum | |
| Black Olive | Purple | Green/Mustard | C. annuum | |
| Purple Prince | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Purple Thai | Purple | Purple | C. frutescens | Royal Purple Thai |
| Blue Christmas | Purple | Blue | C. annuum | |
| Purple Delight | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Pequín Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum var. glabriusculum | |
| Purple Tepin | Purple | Purple | C. annuum var. glabriusculum | |
| Purple Tiger | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Pretty in Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Purple Haze | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Acapulco Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Deep Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Ecuadorian Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Ukrainian Purple | Purple | Purple | C. annuum | |
| Black Cobra | Purple | Black | C. annuum | |
| Black Cuban | Purple | Black | C. annuum | |
| Purple Habanero | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Ghost Pepper Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Carolina Reaper Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Moruga Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Naga Jolokia Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Scotch Bonnet Steve Purple | Purple | Purple | C. chinense | |
| Purplegum Cream | Purple | White/Cream | C. chinense | |
| Black Biquinho | Deep purple-black | Red | C. chinense | |
| 007 Pot Red | Crimson/Burgundy | Red | C. chinense | |
| Purple Chacoense | Purple | Purple | C. chacoense | |
| Ulupica | Purple | Black | C. eximium | |
| Jalapeño Snow White's Dwarf | White/Cream | White/Cream | C. annuum | |
| Orange Fish Pepperoncini | White/Cream | Orange | C. annuum |
Rows where our own record disagrees
These varieties appear on published non-green lists, and growers describe the immature pods the same way year after year. The WikiPepper record still carries them as green. The fault is almost certainly ours: the immature colour field went in later than the rest of the database and plenty of entries never got it filled. We keep the rows here rather than delete them, and the third column shows what the record currently says so you can judge for yourself.
| Variety | Reported immature pod | WikiPepper record | Ripens to |
| Fish Pepper | Creamy white with green stripes. | Green/Mustard. | Multicolor/Irregular |
| Variegated Fish | Creamy white and green variegated. | Green/Mustard. | Multicolor/Irregular |
| Aji Fantasy Stripey | Creamy yellow with striping. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Sugar Rush Peach Stripey | Creamy peach with striping. | Green/Mustard. | Peach/Salmon/Pastel |
| Pimenta Puma | Dark purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Pimenta Leopard | Dark purple with variegation. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Pimenta de Cheiro Roxa | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Purple. |
| Hungarian Black Cherry | Dark purple. | Green/Mustard. | Black |
| NuMex Easter | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Multicolor/Irregular |
| NuMex Centennial | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Multicolor/Irregular |
| Purple Starburst | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Violetta Lunga | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Purple. |
| Purple Candlelight | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Little Elf | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Bishop's Crown Purple | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Chenzo | Purple. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
| Cajun Belle | Ivory to yellow. | Green/Mustard. | Red |
Names this list carried that we cannot confirm
Reference lists accumulate names nobody can trace. The eight below came off the earlier version of this page. None matches a database record, and we found no vendor listing for any of them under these names. Several read like slight misspellings of real varieties. We leave them visible instead of quietly dropping them, because a reader who owns seed under one of these names deserves to know the name is unsupported.
| Name as listed | Reported immature pod | Status |
| Fairy Tale | Lavender purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Explosive Dragon | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Pimenta Venenosa | Dark purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Purple Splash | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Galaxy Purple | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Aurora Borealis | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Prairie Sun | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
| Purple Top Hat | Purple | No record in the WikiPepper database and no vendor listing found. |
How do I use this list?
Three ways. First, identification: a purple unripe pod narrows a mystery plant considerably, especially combined with flower colour and pod shape. Second, harvest timing, since none of these varieties tells you it is ripe by turning from green. Work off the final colour in the table and the usual signs of maturity described in the harvesting guide. Third, seed selection: anthocyanin expression in unstable lines varies plant to plant, so a purple-podded seedling out of a segregating batch is worth keeping if that is the trait you want.
One caution on colour intensity. Anthocyanin responds to light, so the same variety runs darker in full sun and paler under shade cloth or indoors. A pod that looks black outdoors can come out dull plum in a grow tent. That is the plant responding to conditions, not a mislabelled seed.
Sources & Further Reading
- Borovsky, Y., M. Oren-Shamir, R. Ovadia, W. De Jong and I. Paran. The A locus that controls anthocyanin accumulation in pepper encodes a MYB transcription factor homologous to Anthocyanin2 of Petunia. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 109: 23-29, 2004.
- Jeong, H.B., et al. Candidate gene analysis reveals that the fruit color locus C1 corresponds to PRR2 in pepper. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2020.
- Genetic regulation of chlorophyll biosynthesis in pepper fruit: roles of CaAPRR2 and CaGLK2. PMC11855580, 2025.
- Identification of the CaPs locus involved in purple stripe formation on unripe pepper fruit. PubMed 37056500, 2023.
- Priest, C.T., and D.J. Austin. The Chile Pepper Almanac. Harambe Publishing, 2026. Amazon
- WikiPepper. Pepper Plant Anatomy Guide.