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biodiversity explorer

the web of life in southern Africa

Family: Piperaceae (pepper family)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > magnoliids > Order: Piperales

Five genera and about 3600 species (pantropical), with two genera (Piper and Peperomia) and nine species native to southern Africa . An additional 11 species are cultivated in the region, including Piper nigrum (Black pepper).

Genera native to southern Africa

List from Jordaan (2000).

Peperomia

About 1000 species (pantropical), with seven species native to southern Africa and an additional nine species that are cultivated in southern Africa.

Piper (pepper genus)

About 1000 species (cosmopolitan in warm regions), with two species native to southern Africa and an additional two species (including Black pepper Piper nigrum) cultivated in southern Africa. 

Publications

  • Jordaan, M. 2000. Piperaceae. In: Seed Plants of Southern Africa (ed. O.A. Leistner). Strelitzia 10: 444-445. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.