TigerPaw-NR Habanero

Developed in Charleston, South Carolina by ARS (Agricultural Research Service) scientists, the TigerPaw-NR is an extra-hot bright orange habanero variety that is highly resistant to many species of root-knot nematodes. It does pack quite a punch compared to a regular habanero.

Geneticist Richard Fery, who developed TigerPaw-NR with plant pathologist Judy Thies, says the pepper—named when a fellow scientist saw a picture of its fruit and claimed they looked like tiger paws.

Fery and Thies developed TigerPaw-NR through conventional recurrent backcross breeding, which transferred the gene responsible for root-knot nematode resistance in PA-426, a Scotch Bonnet type of pepper, into PA-350, a classical habanero type. Thies says that in tests, nematode resistance of the new pepper was equal to that of PA-426.