The needle like Chili De Arbol looks like it should be dangerous – and generally it is pretty hot to eat – up to about 30,000 scoville just below a cayenne pepper. You need to pick carefully the type of culinary use you put it to but they do look spectacular in a dish. It is generally known as a ‘birds beak’ and the name for the plant means ‘tree’ and when growing essentially it looks like a bright red birds beak hanging on a miniature chili tree. The heat is quite searing and fast but luckily dies off quite fast too. They stay bright red when dried so are often used for decorative purposes.

They are usually about 7-10cm long and only about 5-7mm diameter through.

The flesh is papery and fairly thin when fully ripe and they are a bit of a pain to cut and strip the seeds from so it’s bets to leave them whole to impart their flavour and heat in cooking.

The bushes are generally very hardy but thrive on sun heat and radiant ground heat. They are quite attractive to grow as decorative plants as well as for eating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_de_árbol

http://www.eatmorechiles.com/Arbol.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

This is just a quick photo snap of a flower and a ripening De Arbol on a small bush in late autumn.