A Peck of Pretty Peppers

Peppers are remarkable vegetables. They can be sweet or spicy, as small as your thumb or bigger than your hand—and they come in nearly every color of the rainbow.

In the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Vegetable Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, scientists John Stommel and Robert Griesbach have been breeding ornamental peppers since 1991. In that time, they've developed a bunch of colorful peppers that are as tasty as they are beautiful.

One of their peppers is called Tangerine Dream. Tangerine Dream is a sweet, edible pepper with bright-green leaves and orange fruit shaped like tiny bananas. Another pepper, Black Pearl, has shiny, black leaves and glossy-black fruit that ripen from black to red.