In Mexico, Central American, and the southwestern U.S., Capsicum is called chile. Capsicum is not related to the Piper genus, which contains Piper nigrum L., the source of black and white pepper. The genus Capsicum is a member of the Solanaceae family that includes tomato, potato, tobacco, and petunia. Chile grows as a perennial shrub in suitable climatic conditions. A plant may live for a decade or more in tropical Central America, but it is cultivated as an annual in New Mexico.
All wild chiles have small fruits that birds, the natural dispersal agent for chile, eat with ease.
The first chiles consumed were probably collected from wild plants. Apparently the indigenous peoples were growing chile plants between 5200 and 3400 B.C., which place chiles among the oldest cultivated crops of the Americas. Prehistoric Americans took the wild chile piquin and selected for the various pod-types known today. However, domesticated chiles apparently were not grown prehistorically in New Mexico. It is not known exactly when chiles were introduced into New Mexico.