Piper auritum |
Piper |
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hoja santa, Vera Cruz pepper |
pepper |
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Habit | Shrubs or subshrubs (rarely herbaceous), reclining, 2-5 m, glabrous. | |||||
Leaves | blade ovate, 20-35×17-20 cm, base narrowly and deeply obliquely cordate, apex abruptly short-acuminate to acute; surfaces abaxially and adaxially minutely pubescent, most conspicuously so along veins. |
blade conspicuously pinnately veined, lateral veins ascending-arching, connected by fainter, ladderlike, tertiary veins. |
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Spikes | 12-25 cm. |
opposite leaves, ascending-arching, densely flowered, distally drooping. |
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Flowers | sessile, borne on surface of rachis; floral bracts fringed with whitish hairs; stamens 2[-6]; stigmas [2-]3[-4]. |
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Fruits | not seen. |
sessile, oblong (inversely pyramidal-3-angled in P. auritum); beak minute. |
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Small | trees, shrubs, subshrubs, or rarely herbs, erect or reclining, glabrous or pubescent. |
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Piper auritum |
Piper |
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Phenology | Flowering all year. | |||||
Habitat | Thickets | |||||
Elevation | 0-20 m (0-100 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
Mexico; Central America; West Indies; n South America [Introduced, Fla.]
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Primarily tropics and subtropics |
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Discussion | Piper auritum has been collected as "wild" in Broward County, Florida. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 1000 (2 in the flora). This genus includes Piper nigrum Linnaeus, the source of black pepper and white pepper. Measurements for spike length in all descriptions include the peduncle. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 54. (1816) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 28. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 18. (1754) | ||||
Web links |