Capsicum

Annual or perennial, much-branched herbs, rarely shrubby at base. Leaves entire or repand. Flowers solitary or pedicels 2- or 3-nate. Calyx shortly campanulate, truncate or with 5 teeth or setae, accrescent. Corolla subrotate, 5-partite; lobes valvate. Stamens 5, inserted near corolla base; filaments filiform; anthers shorter than or +/- as long as filaments, dehiscing longitudinally. Disc small. Ovary 2(3)-locular; style filiform; stigma +/- clavate. Fruit a berry, small and globose to large and conical or almost linear, erect or nodding. Seeds compressed, rugose or nearly smooth; embryo much curved, cotyledons semiterete. x = 6 (9) (aneuploids, high polyploidy).