Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is a variety of Capsicum annuum that is native to southern North America and northern South America. Common names include chiltepín, Indian pepper, chiltepe, and chile tepín, as well as turkey, bird’s eye, or simply bird peppers, due to their consumption and spread by wild birds, "unlike humans birds are impervious to the heat of peppers". Tepín is derived from a Nahuatl word meaning "flea". This variety is the most likely progenitor of the domesticated C. annuum var. annuum. Another similar-sized pepper, 'Pequin' (also called 'piquin') is often confused with tepin, although the tepin fruit is round to oval where as the pequin's fruit is oval with a point, and the leaves, stems and plant structures are very different on each plant. Description Chiltepin is a perennial shrub that usually grows to a height of around , but sometimes reaches . In areas without hard frost in winter, plants can live 35–50 years. Fruit The tiny chili peppers of C. a. var. glabriusculum are red to orange-red, usually slightly ellipsoidal, and about in diameter. Some strains of tepin peppers are much closer to perfectly round when fresh. A dried tepin pepper appears quite round even if it was slightly ellipsoidal when fresh. Tepin peppers are very hot, in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) measuring between 465,000–1,629,000, or 325,000–2,469,000 depending on the capsaicinoid ⇨ SHU conversion method. The tepin can be hotter than the habanero or red savina, with the highest levels seen in green fruit 40-50 days after fruit set. However and since this pepper is primarily harvested from wild stands in the Mexican desert, the heat level of the fruit can vary greatly from year to year, depending on the amount of natural rainfall that occurs during the time the fruits are forming. Fruit heat levels can be weak during drought years, and normal rainfall years produce the highest heat levels. The heat levels also varies between the green fresh fruits (which are pickled in vinegar), red-ripe fresh fruits, dried whole fruit, and dried fruit with the seeds removed, with heat levels arranged from mildest to hottest in that order. Around 50 tons are estimated to be harvested commercially annually in Mexico, primarily in Sonora. In Mexico, the heat of the chiltepin is called arrebatado ("rapid" or "violent"), because, while the heat is intense, it is not very enduring. This stands in contrast to the domesticated