Could you share where you heard about it or anything else you might know?

The genus name is Capsicum for all peppers as I'm sure you already know, but the species name cannot be given until the traits of the pepper are known.

Carolyn

I never saw it in the small heirloom catalog that Burpee put out for a few years and if it was in the regular catalog not that long ago then I doubt it's an heirloom variety and I also doubt that Milky Way is the real name since Burpee hasn't had any hybridizers in many years and renames peppers they get, primarily from Petoseed, as unnamed ones.

Which is why Burpee gave her a mysterious answer since they don't produce any seed at all.

I also checked the NCSU list of pepper varieties and it isn't there either.

Why does your friend think this pepper is an heirloom one?

It seems to me there would be some record of it somewhere if it were, but not finding any references whatsoever and now knowing it was from Burpee, I think I see the picture more clearly than before. Sigh.

Carolyn

Obviously Milky Way is not listed between Milfruto and Mission Belle.

There are other possibilities. Many of the Petoseed varieties have Spanish names. Babel Fish translates "milky way" as "manera lechosa," which isn't listed either. However I found an astronomy site that gives the name in Spanish as "via lactea," which also isn't listed.

Perhaps someone mis-remembered the name. It could have been something else astronomical like Big Dipper or Little Dipper which were Burpee varieties listed as 1997.

Or you could grow it out, get its characteristics, and go through the entire list.