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Hi Dave,
I have always read that the ’Bhut Jolokia’, the ’Bih Jolokia’, and the ’Naga Morich’ are all the same peppers only from different regions. Since I am growing them all side by side I am noticing some interesting differences. Just for varification I purchased my ’Bhut Jolokia’ seeds from the Chile Pepper institute, the ’Naga Morich’ from TheChiliMan.org and the ’Bih Jolokia’ were purchased by a friend of mine traveling through Northeast India at a street market where he was told by the merchant that they were ’Bih Jolokia’. He had been looking for them for several days and more than one person had instructed him to find this merchant. I do realize that this could lend skepticism to the authenticity of these peppers.
I have attached some labeled photos. The ’Bih Jolokias’ do resemble the wrinkly texture of the other two, but they are much lighter in color in their "green" state, are more lantern shaped, and are about twice the size of the average habanero. These are actually very big peppers similar in size to small poblanos.
The ’Naga Morich’ and ’Bhut Jolokia’ more closely resemble each other in both color and shape; although, I am finding the ’Naga Morich’ to be more slender and curved. They are very similar in color in their "green" state to the Bhut Jolokia with the Naga Morich being only slightly darker. Take a look at the attached photos. The first image of the ’Bhut Jolokia’ illustrates the result of one of my very odd flowers that I sent before, a double pepper.
I don’t know if anyone has ever grown all three together, if in fact I do really have all three, to observe these differences. All of these photos were taken at the same time in the same lighting, and I have done no image correction. I wanted to truly demonstrate the color differences and have done everything I can to do so. Thank you for your time,
Glenn
Hello Glenn:
Actually, these peppers are what we call cultivated varieties of the same pod type. Just like there are many sizes, heat levels, corking, and other variations regarding Jalapeno cultivated varieties, which are a pod type of Capsicum annuum, so Jolokia is a pod type with different cultivated varieties of Capsicum chinense.
Dave
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