The African bird pepper is a cultivar of Capsicum frutescens, one of the sources of chili pepper, that grows both wild and domesticated. It is a small and extremely spicy member of the capsicum (Capsicum) genus. The plants are usually very bushy and grow in height to 45-120 centimeters, with leaves of 4–7 cm length and 1.3-1.5 cm width. The fruits are generally tapered to a blunt point and measure up to 2.5 centimeters long. Immature pod color is green, mature color is bright red or purple. Some varieties of birdseye measure up to 175,000 Scoville Heat Units.