Cayenne - Chilli Plant

The Cayenne plant is one of the best-known chillies of all. Its long, slender red fruit is clearly hot and, at the same time, remarkably versatile. Cayenne is especially well known in dried and ground form: this is exactly where the classic cayenne pepper comes from. We raise our Cayenne plants ourselves in Illmitz.

Botanically, Cayenne belongs to Capsicum annuum. If you'd like to discover more varieties of this species, you'll find them among our Capsicum annuum chilli plants.

What actually is cayenne pepper?

Cayenne pepper isn't a pepper in the botanical sense. It refers to dried and finely ground cayenne chillies, or closely related hot chilli types.

The relatively thin fruit walls of cayenne are especially well suited to this. Fully ripe, red-harvested fruit can be dried and then processed into fine powder or coarser chilli flakes. Where the confusion around chilli, pepper and cayenne pepper comes from is explained in our guide to chilli, pepper and cayenne pepper.

How hot is Cayenne?

Classic cayenne types usually sit at around 30,000–50,000 Scoville Heat Units. That makes Cayenne noticeably hotter than a typical jalapeño, while staying well below the heat of habaneros or superhots. For comparison: the Habanero Red reaches around 100,000–350,000 Scoville.

It's exactly this medium to bold heat that makes the variety versatile in the kitchen: even a little cayenne brings clear heat to a dish. In flavour, Cayenne is spicy, distinctly chilli-like and slightly fruity.

Cayenne pepper plant: fruit and growth

The typical fruit is long, slender and often slightly curved. It starts green, turns a bold red when fully ripe and grows to around 10–15 cm. The plant grows upright to bushy, reaches around 60–100 cm under good conditions and can develop plenty of fruit over the season in a warm, sunny spot. Its name refers to Cayenne in French Guiana.

Drying and grinding Cayenne into cayenne pepper

If you'd like to process Cayenne into powder yourself, let the fruit ripen as fully red as possible. Then dry it thoroughly, and it can be finely ground.

Thanks to their slender shape and thin fruit walls, cayenne chillies dry considerably more easily than very meaty varieties. Our guide shows in more detail how to dry chillies properly. Fresh, Cayenne works just as well in sauces, curries, marinades and stir-fries. Ready-ground chilli powder from our own growing can be found in our Chilli Powder & Salt category.

Growing Cayenne in a pot

Cayenne is very well suited to growing yourself in a pot. We recommend at least 8 litres, ideally 10 litres of soil volume; if you have the space, 15–20 litres is ideal.

A sunny, warm and sheltered spot supports vigorous growth and good fruit ripening. Cayenne is frost-sensitive; overwintering frost-free is possible. If you're after another classic Capsicum annuum with thicker, milder fruit, you can compare Cayenne with our Jalapeno.