Hello,

I bought a little pepper plant this afternoon from an 'honesty' rack in front of a community hall for 10p. (aww) It has a label that says 'pepper traffic light'. I googled to see if I could find out something about the variety, but couldn't find anything. My husband says that perhaps my yankeeness is showing and that 'traffic light' is just the British vernacular for bell peppers that turn from green to yellow to red and that they would definitely be edible.

Does anyone know for certain? There are enough peppers that are strictly ornamental that I'm slightly paranoid..

Many thanks!

I've just searched on a database of 3700 varieties of pepper, and nothing like the name "traffic light" came up, so I think your husband made a good guess about what they might mean.

I don't believe that any pepper is "strictly ornamental", they are all edible, just some are better eating than others. And of course until you bite it you won't know how hot it is! But if it had been one of the super-super-hot ones, then I think they would say, as that tends to be a selling feature and they tend to be rather expensive.

10p for a pepper plant is huge bargain, I think I paid more per seed than that for my plants this year. But of course I know exactly what I'm growing and chose the varieties I wanted to grow carefully.

There's a variety of chilli pepper that turns from green through purple to yellow then red. I wonder whether it might be this? I think 'traffic light pepper' might just be someone's own pet name for a plant whose variety they've forgotten.

There are several that do that. They often have "Twilight" or "Marbles" in their variety name: the latter have small round fruit, it may not surprise you to know. Not usually the best eating types, though fine liquidised into hot sauce.

It occurs to me on re-reading the OP post that they might have a sweet pepper, though those are less often grown. But I think the same applies.

In South Africa one of the supermarket chains markets ordinary Bell Peppers in a pack of three - a red, a yellow and a green pepper, and calls them "Robot Peppers". (South Africans calls 'Traffic Lights' Robots). Translation required by eleanor 365 Project

So... I'm with the suggestion that these are Bell Peppers that have a fruit which will go through the colours of a Traffic Light as they ripen.

For many years I had a pepper which went through green, purple, yellow, orange, which I always knew as a 'traffic light' pepper, there where that name came from I don't know - it might just have been me! Small carrot shaped peppers about an inch long. Edible, good for adding heat, but not outrageously hot, and, of course, very pretty with peppers of all four colours on the plant at the same time.

I don't accept that any pepper is "strictly ornamental", they are all edible, just some are bigger bistro than others. And of advance until you chaw it you will not apperceive how hot it is! But if it had been one of the super-super-hot ones, again I anticipate they would say, as that tends to be a affairs affection and they tend to be rather expensive.