Mustard Habanero

This habanero pepper began life the hard way.  I germinated the seed as usual by placing the seed in a moistened paper towel and placing the towel with seed in a sealed plastic bag.  As is usual, the seed germinates by first sending forth the root (radical) through the seed coat followed by the stem (hypocotyl) and the first leaves (cotyledons, two in fact as Capsicum are dicotyledonous plants).  In some cases the cotyledons get stuck in the seed coat, particularly when the seed is elevated by the emerging plant out of the soil which causes the seed to dry and harden.   This  usually does not cause a problem because as the cotyledons are tapered and as they grow the seed tends to just fall off naturally.  In some cases the seed needs to be removed by force but very carefully so as not to damage (or damage too much) the cotyledons thereby limiting the plants ability to photosynthesize.  In this case the cotyledons never emerged from the seed and only the hypocotyl remained.  Being curious and aware of the fact that in most cases a plant being indeterminate can develop from a single cell, left it alone and observed.  After about 2 weeks and to my delight, the hypocotyl began to turn green indicating the presence of chlorophyll  indicating to me that the plant would survive.  Next the plant developed a single leaf followed by its first set of two.  To this day (photo), the plant is a little odd looking but appears to be healthy.  I have transplanted the plant into a 2 gallon pot and will try to overwinter, assuming it survives this summer.  As an aside, the material visible at the base of the hypocotyl on the soil surface is just a piece of construction paper I put there to kill off the algae which began to grow.