Exotic Beauty (14) : Paprika

Exotic Beauty (14) : Paprika

The past 2 years I made several visits to the conservatories of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium where 10.000 (!) plant and tree species originating from the tropics and the subtropics are growing in the greenhouses over there.

Thanks to the warm and moist climate in the conservatories and the intensive maintenance, it’s really amazing what an immense great variety of exotic flowers from all over the world can be seen there, even in the cold winter season !
Flowers whose natural habitat is situated in the rainforest, the mountain forest, isolated islands, deserts, etc……. Places that most of us will never or seldom visit.
Some of the flowers are very rare, extremely colourful or specially shaped.
Others were introduced in Europe by men and became a cultivated species or ornamental houseplant.

I selected the –to my personal taste- most beautiful flowers that I saw there and made a series of them.

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In American English it's called : Chili pepper.
Dutch name : Spaanse peper of Paprika
German name : Spanischer Pfeffer oder Paprika
Latin name : Capsicum annuum

Country of origin : South America

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The fruit of this well known species is more showy than its flowers.
Nowadays, peppers are cultivated all over the world in different shapes and colours.
The picture shows its original shape as it is still growing in some natural habitats in Mexico, Colombia and Chile.