Chilli Plant grows to 14 feet
Kohima, Nov 21 : Nagaland has set its sights on a record for the longest chilli plant, measuring over 14 feet, after featuring in the Guinness Book of World Records for the tallest rhododendron, measuring upto 108 feet and a nine-foot paddy plant.
Thepfusatuo Rio from Sovima village, nearly 8km from Dimapur, has grown a chilli plant measuring upto 14.7 feet.
It is expected to grow taller.
Rio said his plant has been growing for the past two years and bears more than 10kg of pungent chillies a year.
“The height of 14.7 feet that it has attained is quite surprising because it is not a hybrid plant,” he said.
He said he obtained the chilli plant from his father who resides at Chiechema village under Kohima district, two years ago.
The variety of chilli is locally known as sikhrano.
“We don’t know how this plant grew so tall because generally this variety grows to around 2.5 feet to 4.5 feet,” Rio said.
The plant would make an interesting topic for research, he added.
Unlike other local chillies, the sikhrano is hot but not as much as the Naga King Chilli, which has set a world record with a Scoville heat unit rating of 1,001,304 points.
The Naga King became the world’s hottest chilli in December last year.
A Naga King Chilli eating competition will also be held during the Hornbill Festival at Kisama from December 1-7.
People in and around Dimapur have trooped in to see the plant, but so far neither any research team nor anyone from the agriculture department has shown up.
Rio said many people had requested him for the seeds of the chilli plant.
The tallest rhododendron was discovered at Mount Japfu near Kohima.
The average rhododendron grows upto 10-15 feet but the state has a 108-foot tall rhododendron, which was discovered in 1993 and is still growing.
The pastor of the Chumukedima Town Baptist Church near Dimapur, Melhite Kenye, discovered the tallest paddy plant in 1999.
The plant recorded a height of 9 feet, 510 grains in each ear and a single stalk of the plant was as thick as a human finger.
In 2000, the saplings kept growing to a height of 9 feet.
Each ear of the tested plants had 340 grains.
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