Vegetables & garden · Capsicum annuum
Discovering sweet peppers
Two peppers from their red-ripening variety lie on the garden table. Puschel“A traffic light without yellow,” says Puschel.
The short answer
Pepper fruits develop from flowers. Seeds grow inside them. Many pepper varieties start green and turn red, yellow or orange as they ripen. Not every variety shows all these colours. Green sweet peppers can be eaten before they are fully ripe.
An imagined Wusel scene
Puschel and Flauschi investigate
Two peppers from their red-ripening variety lie on the garden table. Puschel“A traffic light without yellow,” says Puschel.
Flauschi turns the red fruit in her paws. The green and red peppers can be at different stages of ripeness. They are not traffic signs.
Puschel waits a moment anyway. Puschel“Just to be sure.” Flauschi laughs and puts the pepper in the basket.
Discover
Pepper fruits develop from flowers. Seeds grow inside them.
Understand
Many pepper varieties start green and turn red, yellow or orange as they ripen. Not every variety shows all these colours. Green sweet peppers can be eaten before they are fully ripe.
Connections
Sweet peppers are usually mild. The same plant species also includes hot varieties; we use positively identified sweet peppers.
Little Wusel quiz
Does every green pepper turn yellow and then red?
Show answer
No. A ripe pepper’s colour depends on its variety.
Explore in more detail
Here you will find longer explanations and further details. You can explore them together.
Why can green peppers taste different?
A pepper changes as it ripens. In many varieties, green pigment decreases while other pigments become visible or develop. Flavour and composition change too. Green, yellow and red are not a fixed sequence for every variety: some turn directly from green to red, others ripen to other colours.
Compare and understand
Mild sweet peppers can be harvested green. Colour cannot reliably reveal heat: chillies may also be red or green. Compare safely selected mild peppers only. A cut fruit contrasts with a potato: its seeds are inside a fruit that developed above ground from a flower.