Acorn Peperomia

Some plants from Guizhou and S Yunnan are much more densely hairy than the typical form of Peperomia tetraphylla and can be separated as var. sinensis.

Used for medicinal and ornamental purposes.

Herbs perennial, fleshy, forming clumps, usually glabrous except for rachis and bases of bracts. Stolons present. Stems many branched, 10-30 cm, internodes thickly ridged. Leaves dense, ± uniform in size; petiole 1-2 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade broadly elliptic or suborbicular, 0.9-1.2 cm × 5-9 mm, fleshy, pale and usually wrinkled when dried, pellucid dotted, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, rarely densely pubescent, base and apex rounded, slightly revolute; veins 3, slender, usually inconspicuous. Spike terminal and axillary, solitary, 2-4.5 cm; peduncle sparsely pubescent to ± glabrous; bracts suborbicular, stalk short. Filaments short, thecae rounded-"D"-shaped. Ovary ovoid, inserted within excavations of rachis; stigmas capitate, pubescent. Nutlet subovoid, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Feb-Apr, Sep-Dec.

Africa, Himalaya (Kashmir to Bhutan), India, Ceylon, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, America.

Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa, Central and South America, Oceania]

1000-2500 m

Wet rocks and dead trees, along streams; 600-3100 m.

Piper tetraphyllum G. Forster, Prodr. Fl. Ins. Austr. 5: 5. 1786; Peperomia reflexa (Linnaeus f.) A. Dietrich (1831), not P. reflexa Kunth (1815); P. reflexa (Linnaeus f.) A. Dietrich f. sinensis C. de Candolle; P. tetraphylla var. sinensis (C. de Candolle) P. S. Chen & P. C. Zhu; Piper reflexum Linnaeus f.

tetraphylla: 4-leaved

Perennial epiphytic or lithophytic herb with creeping stems up to 20 cm long. Leaves (sub)sessile in whorls of 4 or 3, ovate-elliptic, up to 18 mm long, thickly leathery to fleshy, hairless or slightly puberulous below. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, solitary spikes, green.

Locally common

Pantropical; in Africa widespread in tropical Africa and South Africa.

Peperomia tetraphylla is occurring in Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Xizang, Yunnan of China, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa, Central and South America, Oceania.

Herbs perennial, fleshy, forming clumps, usually glabrous except for rachis and bases of bracts. Stolons present. Stems many branched, 10-30 cm, internodes thickly ridged. Leaves dense, ± uniform in size; petiole 1-2 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade broadly elliptic or suborbicular, 0.9-1.2 cm long, 5-9 mm wide, fleshy, pale and usually wrinkled when dried, pellucid dotted, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, rarely densely pubescent, base and apex rounded, slightly revolute; veins 3, slender, usually inconspicuous. Spike terminal and axillary, solitary, 2-4.5 cm; peduncle sparsely pubescent to ± glabrous; bracts suborbicular, stalk short. Filaments short, thecae rounded-"D"-shaped. Ovary ovoid, inserted within excavations of rachis; stigmas capitate, pubescent. Nutlet subovoid, ca. 1 mm.

The chromosomal number of Peperomia tetraphylla is 2n = 22, 44 (Huang, 1989; Murray and De Lange, 1999).

Growing in wet rocks and dead trees, along streams; 600-3100 m.

Peperomia tetraphylla is used for medicinal and ornamental purposes.

Peperomia tetraphylla, known as the acorn peperomia or four-leaved peperomia, is a small plant in the Peperomia genus and the Piperaceae family that grows natively in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Additionally in can found on Easter Island as an introduced species.

P. tetraphylla is a low-growing herb, with creeping stems, sometimes forming mats. The leaves are elliptic or round, growing in whorls of 3 to 4, typically green but might also be reddish on the underside. It grows in wet highland and evergreen forests, often as an epiphyte on top of trees or falles logs, but can also be found on rocky knolls or among grass by river banks.

The specific epithet tetraphylla is from the Ancient Greek language, meaning "four leaves". It was first described in 1832 by W.J. Hooker and G.A. Walker-Arnott after a coastal survey of South America under the command of Captain F.W. Beechey.

Three varieties are known: P. tetraphylla, Peperomia tetraphylla var. piedadeana, and Peperomia tetraphylla var. tenera.