# chilis and where they came from **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 21, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilis-and-where-they-came-from/280933 "2004-12-21T05:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilis-and-where-they-came-from/280933/1 "2004-12-21T05:00:31Z")
We were talking about spicy food, specifically Mexican, and the question came up: Since Asian cultures such as India and China produce some breathtakingly fiery foods, did the chili pepper (capsicum), one variety or another, originate in Asia? We thought it was an export from the Americas. Or, did it grow on both continents and was more wide-spread than we imagined? As a side issue, is the chili de arbol (tree chili) the most commonly known Asian chili, a separate thing from the capsicum chilis of The Americas? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilis-and-where-they-came-from/280933/2 "2004-12-21T12:51:10Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **movingfinger** , we’re glad to have you with us. You posted in the forum “Comments on Staff Reports”, and I presume you meant it in reference to [Are birds immune to hot pepper, enabling them to eat vast amounts and spread the seeds?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mchili.html) It’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link when you start a thread, saves lots of search time. No biggie, you’ll know for next time. Since this is sort of a spin-off question from the Staff Report, and sort of a new question altogether, it could go in the forum called “General Questions.” I suspect you might get better responses there, but we don’t want double-posting, so here’s my plan: we’ll let it stay here for a while and see what happens. If there’s not much response in the next few days, I’ll move it to the other forum and see if we get better response there. Again, welcome! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilis-and-where-they-came-from/280933/3 "2004-12-21T14:23:54Z")
[Yale article on chiles, including history.](http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/chili.jsp) Genus _Capsicum_ is native to the Americas, but apparently caught on like wildfire in the world-trade boom that ensued after 1500. Spices were a big deal back then, so I hear. Just speculating, I can imagine that the Asian cuisines were already quite well-spiced with _native_ botanicals) but the introduction of the chile simply gave them much more bang-for-the-buck, heat-wise, so it was quickly adopted. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilis-and-where-they-came-from/280933/4 "2004-12-21T15:56:48Z")
Many food plants native to the Americas were adopted by Old World cuisines to such an extent that we now consider these plants integral to them: the tomatos and green/red peppers in Italian cooking, peanuts and chilis in African and southeast Asian, white potatoes in Irish and German, etc.