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hoja santa, Vera Cruz pepper

higuillo de hoja menuda

Habit Shrubs or subshrubs (rarely herbaceous), reclining, 2-5 m, glabrous. Shrubs or small trees, erect, 2-7 m, sparsely pubescent.
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 oblong, ovate, widely lanceolate to elliptic, 11-24 × 4-8 cm, base obliquely rounded to obliquely cuneate, apex acuminate;

surfaces abaxially soft-pubescent, adaxially scabrous.

Spikes

12-25 cm.

8-15 cm.

Fruits

not seen.

oblong, 2 sides flattened longitudinally, both ends × truncate, apex depressed, regularly pitted or reticulate;

beak minute, ca. 0.1 mm.

Piper auritum

Piper aduncum

Phenology Flowering all year. Flowering all year.
Habitat Thickets Thickets, woodland margins
Elevation 0-20 m (0-100 ft) 0-20 m (0-100 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
Mexico; Central America; West Indies; n South America [Introduced, Fla.]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced, Fla.]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Piper auritum has been collected as "wild" in Broward County, Florida.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Piperaceae > Piper Piperaceae > Piper
Sibling taxa
P. aduncum
P. auritum
Name authority Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 54. (1816) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 29. (1753)
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