Malagueta Pepper

The malagueta pepper is the spice produced from the small fiery pods of a cultivar of the chile pepper species Capsicum frutescens in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Despite the name, it has nothing to do with melegueta pepper, or grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta), a West African spice in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae). The chile just borrowed its name from that older spice through Portuguese trade.