If you crush a leaf, what does it smell like?

According to my Snap Plant app on my phone, it is a Annona Squamosa. Bell peppers Also another name: Capsicum Annuum

And that is the problem with phone apps!! Annona squamosa is not a bell pepper. It is a shrub or small tree that produces a lumpy or warty looking fruit called a sugar apple.

The plant in question is definitely in the Solanaceae so the same family as bell peppers, chilis and the nightshade but there are scads of common Solanaceae it could be, including some very weedy ones. I'd wait to see what kind of fruit pods might develop from the flowers to suppose a species.

Looks like a pepper plant to me. Based on the name of what he thought he was planting, I'll guess it is a Shishito pepper plant.

The crushed leaf didn't have a discernable smell, Nicole. I'm glad I didn't sniff too hard, because I'm so allergic to the nightshades. Can't be in the room if someone is peeling potatoes.

I never heard of Shishito peppers, Bob, so I looked them up. The name would make sense, but the leaves look narrower.

We'll let them keep growing--after I get them off my porch and onto my son's--and I'll report back when the flowers have produced some fruit. Thank you!

It’s a pepper, 100%. They look pretty similar - bell, chilli, etc - so you’ll probably find out for certain when it fruits. The resemblance to a nightshade is due to their being in the same plant family, the Solanaceae. But Deadly Nightshade looks completely different and is in a different genus from both peppers and black or bittersweet nightshade.

It looks like a pepper plant to me. If peppers form from the blossoms then you will know.

Looks like a pepper plant to me as well.

Perhaps a small fruited variety, maybe a hot one. A bird or some other animal might've left it for you as a present after eating one...

Shisito looks a lot like a Cubanelle. Anyone know if they're the same? Both are somewhat low on the scoville scale besides their similar look.

Rob, I looked up Cubanelle, and they are considerably larger than what my plants produced, if that helps.

and since your plant is in a pot, produce will be smaller than if it was ground planted ...

Okay . . . It's a BIG pot (sits on the floor), but that's probably still true.

“produce will be smaller than if it was ground planted ...”

If the pot is adequately sized and the plants are suitably fed and watered there is no reason why the produce would be smaller.