(G.Forst.) Hook. & Arn.
Description
Peperomia tetraphylla is a small succulent herb of pantropical and warm-temperate distribution. GBIF (some 13,039 occurrences) documents it from the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, the United States, the Andes), Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan) and Australasia, reflecting an extraordinarily wide range. It grows as an epiphyte on mossy trunks and as a lithophyte on shaded, humid rocks in forest. The illustrated plants are from Bhutan at Trithangbi (1,000 m, October) and West Bengal at Ruigi-Chu (2,000 m, May), spanning its Himalayan altitudinal range in moist broadleaved forest.
The plant is a fleshy, glabrous to finely pubescent herb with creeping then ascending stems rooting at the nodes. The leaves are succulent, characteristically borne in whorls of three to four (whence tetraphylla), small, elliptic to obovate and shortly petiolate. The inflorescence is a slender terminal or axillary spike of minute, naked, bisexual flowers lacking a perianth, each subtended by a peltate bract; the stamens are two and the stigma single. The fruit is a tiny ovoid drupelet, often borne sessile along the rachis.
Peperomia (Piperaceae) is a large pantropical genus, and P. tetraphylla is notable as one of its most widespread species, occurring on most continents. Its small succulent leaves and CAM-like physiology suit it to the seasonally dry, epiphytic microhabitats it occupies. Of no conservation concern given its vast range, it is locally used in folk medicine and is grown as a miniature ornamental, illustrating the cosmopolitan tropical element reaching into the lower Himalaya.
Author: (G.Forst.) Hook. & Arn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Wanke et al.: Phylogeny of Piperaceae