Piper

Plant Characteristics

Origin:	✈	?

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	?"?" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property.
Water:	◍	?"?" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property.

Scientific Names

Read about Piper in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Piper (the ancient latin name). Piperaceae. Pepper. A vast genus (probably 600 to 700 species) of both the Old and New Worlds, mostly in the tropics, a few of which are in cultivation as greenhouse foliage subjects and in collections of economic plants. Pipers are mostly dioecious: erect or climbing woody plants, or sometimes herbaceous, and some are trees: fls. very minute, borne beneath decurrent bracts in slender, erect or drooping axillary spikes or catkins; perianth none; stamens usually 1—4; ovary 1-loculed, with a solitary erect ovule: fr. a small globular drupe or berry: lvs. alternate, stipulate, usually entire. The pepper of commerce is the product of P. nigrum. The family contains many plants with aromatic, pungent and stimulating qualities. Some of them are used in medicine, and others yield intoxicating and masticatory products. For red pepper and chilli or chile pepper, see Capsicum and Pepper. To this genus are also referred Enckea and species sometimes grown under the name of Chavica. In choice collections, one is likely to find several species, but as they seldom fruit it is very difficult to determine their species. In the following list are all the names that have appeared in the American trade. Piper is an exceedingly difficult genus to the systematist because of the great numbers of species, the variation of foliage in the same plant at different epochs, the difficulty of matching the sexes of the same species, the imperfect specimens in herbaria, and the scarcity of good studies of the plants in the wild. They are easy of cultivation. Most of those known in houses require a warmhouse temperature and a humid atmosphere. Easily multiplied by cuttings of the firm wood. They are grown for the decorative value of their drooping or bushy sprays. P. Betle, Linn. Betel (which see, p. 496). Climbing, nearly or quite glabrous: lvs. large and thick, ovate-oblong, acuminate, usually oblique at base, strongly 5-7-nerved: spikes often 4-0 in. long: fr. very fleshy, often cohering into a long-cylindrical mass. Eastern tropics. B.M. 3132. Lvs. of this and others chewed by natives with the betel-nut.—P. metallicum, Hort. (Hallier?). Lvs. thick, rounded, handsome metallic green. Borneo.—P. officinarum, C. DC. (Chavica offcinarum, Hort.?) has long-elliptic somewhat slarp -pointed feather-veined coriaceous lvs. ana globular united berries in a dense spike. India and Malaya.—P. porphy. rophyllum. N. E. Br. (Cissus porphyrophylla, Lindl., and of horticulturists). Handsome climbing foliage plant with broadly cordate-oval short-pointed lvs. that are purple beneath and bronzy green and pink-spotted along the veins above. Probably E. Indies. F.S. 14:1491. R.H. 1883, p. 560. Lowe, 59.—P. rubronodosum. Bull. Shrub, with red-jointed roughish sts.: lvs. cordate-ovate, somewhat blistered, silvery gray, the petiole pubescent. Colombia. —P. rubrovenosum, Hort. Climbing: lvs. cordate-ovate, acuminate, marked with rose-colored dots and streaks along the veins. Very like P. ornatum, and perhaps not distinct. Papua. I.H. 34:33. L. H. B. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Piper. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Piper QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)