NuMex Piñata

Released in 1998, the jalapeño cultivar ‘NuMex Piñata’ originated spontaneously in the cultivar ‘Early Jalapeño’ (Votava & Bosland, 1998). ‘NuMex Piñata’ is unique in the transition of colors the fruit undergo as they mature. Immature fruit are light green, maturing to yellow, orange, and finally red. The fruit color of standard jalapeño cultivars changes from green to red. The foliage of ‘Early Jalapeño’ and other jalapeño cultivars is dark green while ‘NuMex Piñata’ has yellowish foliage. The inheritance of the foliage color and fruit color transition of ‘NuMex Piñata’ is due to a single homozygous recessive gene (Votava et al., 2000). The plant growth habit of ‘NuMex Piñata’ is smaller and tends to decline earlier in the season due to the lack of chlorophyll produced by the foliage. ‘NuMex Piñata’ is a unique jalapeño for making colorful salsa. It has kept the natural flavors and aromas of traditional jalapeños and is considered hot, with a heat level of 50,000 SHU. All plant and fruit characteristics, including plant height, yield, and pod width, are not significantly different from ‘Early Jalapeño.’ One difference is pod length, which is longer than ‘Early Jalapeño.’