Peperomia serpens

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Peperomia serpens

Description

Epiphytic or epilithic herb, creeping or twining and rooting at nodes. Stem minutely crisp-pubescent, internodes 0.5-3 cm long, green. Leaves alternate, slightly peltate; petiole to 2 cm long, crisp-pubescent; blade fleshy or slightly coriaceous, broadly elliptic or deltoid, 1-2 x 1-2 cm, ciliolate towards apex, apex rounded, base rounded, some hairs on young leaves only; venation obsoletely 3-5-veined. Inflorescence terminal, solitary; peduncle nodose or with 1-2 caducous bracts, not slender, to 3 cm long, crisp-pubescent, not winged, green; spike up to 1.7 cm long, pale green, densely flowered; floral bracts rounded, glabrous, glandular. Fruits basely attached, ellipsoid, brown, apex with slender beak and subapical stigma.

Distribution

Neotropics present
Throughout the Neotropics; over 160 collections studied (GU: 38; SU: 36; FG: 91).

Common Name

English (French Guiana): kaimek pokal; English (Suriname): gran koupali

Notes

In 1866, a later homonym was published: Peperomia serpens C. DC. (J. Bot. 4: 136). It was replaced by P. dimota Trel. & Yunck. (1950: 621).
See also note to P. rotundifolia.