By Jesus Lopez Jr. The Arizona Daily StarThey are pea-sized, crunchy balls of fire.
They have been used by the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs.
They grow wild in South America, the Caribbean and south of Tucson.
They are chilte pins, and a 4 square-mile reserve in the Coronado National Forest will be dedicated today at a private ceremony in Rock Corral Canyon, near Tumacacori. The ceremony marks the creation of 'the Wild Chile Botanical area.
Joshua Tewksbury, a graduate student at the University of Montana, has worked together with Native Seeds/SEARCH and the Coronado National Forest to study and protect the plants
known as the "original Chile.''
For 10 years, Native Seeds/SEARCH, 526 N. Fourth Ave., worked to establish the reserve, said Conservation Director Suzanne Nelson. The group was formed to preserve the native seeds and farming methods of the Southwest.
Nelson said the Coronado forest has the northernmost range for the plants, believed to be the first chile plant. Researchers believe it is a heartier, frostresistant strain of the mainly tropical chile.
Chiltepin plants are scattered around the forest and are usually found under desert hackberries.
Spokeswoman Gail Aschenbrenner of the Coronado National CHILE, Page 2B