Javanese Long Pepper

Widely cultivated and of uncertain origin. There is a single record of this species (or a closely related one), apparently growing wild in Yunnan. The collection, C. W. Wang 75415, differs from the usual cultivated plant by the longer infructescence.

Used medicinally.

Climbers glabrous except for rachis and stigmas, dioecious. Stems brownish when dry, ca. 2 mm thick, terete, striated. Petiole 5-11 mm, sheathed at base only; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, ovate-oblong, or elliptic, 8.5-16 × 3.2-7.5 cm, papery, glaucous when dry, densely glandular, base with both sides rounded or 1 side slightly tapered and short, tapered and short side sometimes concave to semicordate, ± symmetric to oblique, bilateral difference 0-5 mm, apex shortly acuminate to acute; veins 9-11, rarely more, pinnate, usually 4 or 5 on each side of midvein. Spikes leaf-opposed. Male spikes 5-6.5 cm; peduncle slightly longer than petioles; bracts orbicular, 1-1.2 mm wide, peltate, sessile. Stamens 2 or 3; filaments nearly absent; anthers broadly ellipsoid. Female spikes 3-4 cm × ca. 7 mm; peduncle and bracts as in male spikes. Ovary immersed in rachis; stigmas 3, ovate-acute, recurved. Unripe drupe partly connate to rachis, apex rounded. Fl. May-Jul.

?Yunnan; cultivated in Guangdong [India, Indonesia (?Timor), Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam]

Chavica officinarum Miquel; Piper chaba Hunter; P. officinarum (Miquel) C. de Candolle.