Naga pepper plants

The family ghost peppers come from. None are on the shelf today.

By Debra Austin

Species: Capsicum chinense

Naga, morich, jolokia

Naga means serpent in several languages of northeast India and Bangladesh. Naga Morich is a superhot Capsicum chinense from that region, in the same genetic neighborhood as bhut jolokia, the ghost pepper. Naga Viper is a later British cross that claimed a record and then argued about the lab work. They are not one variety. They are a cluster of names around the same kind of plant.

We do not have a naga on the list right now. Older naga URLs on this site point at plants we no longer sell. This page is here so the name has an honest answer.

How hot nagas are

Published figures for naga morich and its crosses sit from roughly 400,000 SHU up past a million, depending on which selection and which lab. That is superhot, the same conversation as a ghost or a scorpion. We have not measured a naga on our own bench this season, so that band is the published one, not a number from a plant in our nursery.

What people use them for

Sauces and pickles, in drops. In Bangladesh and northeast India the pod is a cooking chile, used with more confidence than an American hot-sauce recipe usually allows. If you want that flavor from a plant we actually have, start with a ghost. The ghost page explains how the burn arrives late. A Reaper is hotter and faster. A 7 Pot is the Trinidad version of the same problem.

Growing a naga, when you have one

It is a long-season chinense: warm soil, a big pot, and months before a ripe pod. Nothing about the name changes the care. If we list one again, it will show on this page automatically, because the match looks for the word naga in the title.

Closest plants we grow

Questions people ask

Do you sell naga pepper plants?

Not right now. The closest plants we list are ghosts, Carolina Reapers, and 7 Pots.

Is a naga the same as a ghost pepper?

They are related chinenses from the same part of the world. Ghost is the English name for bhut jolokia. Naga Morich is the overlapping name. They are not a single variety.

How hot is a naga pepper?

Published numbers usually run from about 400,000 SHU to over a million. We are not quoting a measurement of our own, because we do not have one listed.