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  1. Family: Piperaceae Giseke

    1. Piper L.

        2. This genus is accepted, and its native range is Tropics & Subtropics.

    [FTEA]

    Piperaceae, Bernard Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1996

    Habit
    Herbs, shrubs, slender trees, climbers or scramblers, only rarely epiphytic, if with unisexual flowers (usually in the Old World) then monoecious or dioecious; stemsthickened at the nodes, often hollow, sometimes producing adventitious roots, glabrous or with indumentum of simple or multicellular hairs
    Leaves
    Leaves alternate, petiolate, symmetrical or asymmetrical, occasionally peltate, sometimes lobed at the base, membranous to coriaceous; venation palmate or pinnate; petiole sometimes sheathing, the adnate stipule-like organs soon falling
    Inflorescences
    Inflorescences leaf-opposed or apparently axillary, pedunculate, solitary or in one small but very widespread group several on short leafless shoots
    Flowers
    Flowers hermaphrodite (mostly New World) or unisexual, sessile or pedicellate, crowded to widely placed on an often fleshy rhachis, each with a round triangular semilunate or calceiform bract
    Stamens
    Stamens 2–6; anthers basifixed with thecae usually distinct
    Pistil
    Ovary conoid, subglobose, conic, obovoid or subcylindrical; styles long, short or absent; stigmas 2–4
    Fruits
    Fruits globose, obpyramidal, cylindrical or ovoid to flask-shaped, dry or fleshy, glabrous to densely puberulous, papillose-pubescent or hispidulous, sometimes glandular, often pedicellate.
    [FZ]

    Piperaceae, M.A. Diniz. Flora Zambesiaca 9:2. 1997

    Habit
    Erect, scandent or climbing shrubs, or sometimes lianes.
    Stem
    Stems often hollow, jointed at the nodes.
    Leaves
    Leaves alternate, sometimes asymmetrical at the base, membranous or coriaceous.
    Stipules
    Stipules adnate to the petiole, soon caducous.
    Inflorescences
    Inflorescences axillary or leaf-opposed, pedunculate, with flowers in dense cylindrical spikes, rarely racemose.
    Flowers
    Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual; plants monoecious or dioecious.
    Stamens
    Stamens 2–4(6) in the Flora Zambesiaca area; filaments short; anthers basifixed with the thecae usually distinct.
    Pistil
    Ovary ± ovoid to subglobose; stigmas 2–4(5), erect or recurved, sessile or on a short style.
    Fruits
    Fruit a ± globose 1-seeded drupe, sessile, rarely pedunculate.
    Seeds
    Seed sub-globose; testa thin; endosperm and perisperm hard.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Andaman Is., Angola, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Assam, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bismarck Archipelago, Bolivia, Borneo, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Burundi, Cabinda, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caroline Is., Cayman Is., Central African Repu, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, East Himalaya, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Guyana, Hainan, Haiti, Honduras, India, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jawa, Kazan-retto, Kenya, Korea, KwaZulu-Natal, Laos, Leeward Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaya, Mali, Maluku, Marianas, Mauritius, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nansei-shoto, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Nicaragua, Nicobar Is., Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Ogasawara-shoto, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Queensland, Rwanda, Réunion, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Sierra Leone, Solomon Is., Southwest Caribbean, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad-Tobago, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Vietnam, Wallis-Futuna Is., West Himalaya, Windward Is., Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

    Introduced into:

    Ascension, Christmas I., Cook Is., Florida, Galápagos, Hawaii, Maldives, Seychelles

    Piper L. appears in other Kew resources:

    Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status
    Jan 1, 2003 Ensermu, K. [3560], Cameroon K000180227
    Pennington, R.T. [94], Bolivia 56622.000
    Giles [PB302], Borneo 25237.000
    Johns, R.J. [9201], New Guinea 62500.000
    Johns, R.J. [9843], New Guinea 64282.000
    Johns, R.J. [9846], New Guinea 64284.000
    Johns, R.J. [8974], New Guinea 70220.000
    Johns, R.J. [9189], New Guinea 62563.000
    Johns, R.J. [9839], New Guinea 71222.000
    Johns, R.J. [9841], New Guinea 64371.000
    Cable, S. [2724], Cameroon K000180222
    Triono, T. [178], New Guinea 70637.000
    Wight, R. [Cat. no. s.n.], Indian Subcontinent K001132521

    First published in Sp. Pl.: 28 (1753)

    Literature

    Flora of West Tropical Africa
    • —F.T.A. 6, 1 : 144
    Flora Zambesiaca
    • Tebbs in Kubitzki et al., Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 2: 518 (1993).
    • Bentham & Hooker f., Gen. Pl. 3: 129 (1880).
    • Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 18 (1754).
    • Sp. Pl. : 28 (1753)
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • Tebbs in Kubitzki et al., Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 2: 518 (1993)
    • in Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus., Bot: 23: 1–50 (1993)
    • L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 18 (1754)
    • Sp. Pl.: 28 (1753)

    Sources

    Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
    'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

    Interactive Key to Seed Plants of Malesia and Indo-China
    The Malesian Key Group (2010) Interactive Key to Seed Plants of Malesia and Indo-China (Version 2.0, 28 Jul 2010) The Nationaal Herbarium Nederland Leiden and The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0