Pepper elder

Appearance

Shrub, 2-4(-7) m tall. Stem glabrous or minutely pubescent on upper internodes. Prophyll covering shoot apex, 3-8 mm long. Petiole slender, 0.5-1 cm long, vaginate up to middle, glabrous or pubescent; blade lanceolate to rounded or subobovate, 8-11(-15) x 2.5-6(-10) cm, apex acuminate, base equally attached to petiole, acute to subcordate, glabrous or pubescent on veins below; palmately 5-7-veined, tertiary venation obscure. Inflorescence erect; peduncle 0.8-1.5 cm long, glabrous; spike 6-7 cm long, not apiculate; rachis minutely pubescent; floral bracts cucullate, glabrous; thecae divergent, dehiscing partially upward. Fruits ovoid, conical to apex, 1.5-2 mm long, ca. 1 mm in diam., glabrous or papillose, stigmas 3-4, sessile.

Naming

Piper amalago L., Sp.: Pl. 29. 1753 sec. C.A. Todzia, A.R.A. Görts-van Rijn, J. Koek-Noorman & al., 2006
=Piper medium Jacq. in Icon. Pl. Rar. 1: 2. 1787
≡Piper amalago var. medium (Jacq.) Yunck. in Brittonia 14: 189. 1962
≡Piper amalago var. medium (Jacq.) Yunck. f. medium Steyerm. in Fl. Venez. 2: 320. 1984
=Piper ceanothifolium Kunth in Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp., ed. qu., 1: 56. 1816
≡Piper amalago f. medium (Kunth) Steyerm. in Fl. Venez. 2: 322. 1984
Holotype: Humboldt 32.

Distribution

S. America - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, north to the Caribbean and through Central America to Mexico.

Habitat

Moist or wet thickets or mixed forest, at elevations up to 2,600 metres in Guatemala

Uses

The pungent, black fruit is used as a hot spice in food
It is extremely like black pepper (Piper nigrum) in quality
About the size of a mustard seed
The seed should be collected before it is quite ripe
The leaves are dried and used for making tea
Medicinal
The leaves and young shoots are discutient
The green leaves are brewed to provide a remedy for
coughs
The root is diaphoretic, resolutive, sudorific
It is used to treat snake bites
An infusion of the flowers is aperitive and vermifuge
Other Uses
The stems are utilized in building small shelters or shacks in much the same way as bamboo is used