Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 2, 2003
Publication Date: March 2, 2004
Citation: Stommel, J.R., Griesbach, R.J. 2004. Capsicum annuum l. 'Tangerine Dream'. Hortscience. 39(2):448-449. Interpretive Summary: A new pepper cultivar named 'Tangerine Dream' has been developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. 'Tangerine Dream' is well-suited for ornamental and culinary use. 'Tangerine Dream' produces sweet cone-shaped pepper fruit that average 7.6 cm in length. The fruit are borne upright on the plant and are produced in clusters of three to four fruit per cluster. Immature fruit are green in color and will mature to orange-red in approximately 70 days. The plants have a spreading, prostrate growth habit, growing fairly level to the ground. Leaf color is dark green. 'Tangerine Dream' is best suited for use as bedding plants. 'Tangerine Dream's spreading growth habit and brightly colored upright oriented fruit provide an attractive ornamental display. Sweet fruit, which are not hot, make 'Tangerine Dream's fruit well-suited for fresh consumption and for use in cooking. 'Tangerine Dream' is a selection derived from a cross between a sweet bell pepper named 'Cadice' and a squash type pepper with superior flavor named 'Tennessee Cheese'. 'Tangerine Dream' affords nursery growers a new crop to add to their bedding and landscape plant assortment and is an ideal choice for consumers as an edible landscape ornamental. Seed of 'Tangerine Dream' is available from Pan American Seed Company via W. Atlee Burpee and Company, 300 Park Avenue, Warminster, Pennsylvania 18991.
Technical Abstract: The Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture announces the release of a new pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivar named 'Tangerine Dream'. This cultivar is suitable for dual ornamental and culinary applications. 'Tangerine Dream' was selected for its prostrate growth habit and sweet non-pungent upright-oriented conical fruit. Fruit are borne in clusters of three to four fruit per cluster. Immature fruit are green pigmented and mature to orange-red in approximately 70 days. Fruit contain 2 to 3 locules and average 7.6 cm in length and 2.8 cm shoulder width. Average fruit pericarp thickness is 0.4 cm. Plants average 69.8 cm in diameter and 30.3 cm in height. Foliage is dark green. When grown as bedding plants, 'Tangerine Dream's spreading prostrate growth habit and brightly colored upright oriented fruit provide an attractive ornamental display. Sweet non-pungent fruit flavor contributes to culinary appeal. 'Tangerine Dream' was derived from an initial cross between the sweet hybrid bell pepper cultivar 'Cadice' and the open pollinated sweet squash type pepper cultivar 'Tennessee Cheese'. The 'Tangerine Dream' ideotype was identified in the fifth generation of a population of segregating open pollinated field selections, subsequently selected for horticultural quality and stabilized under controlled pollination conditions prior to release at the twelfth generation. 'Tangerine Dream' affords growers a new crop to add to their bedding and landscape plant assortment and is an ideal choice as an edible landscape ornamental.