Terrestrial Peperomia

blanda: mild, pleasing, charming (Latin); leptostachya: with slender spikes (Greek).

Erect perennial epiphytic or lithophytic herb. Stems sometimes decumbent, up to 50 cm long, rooting at the lower nodes, more or less pubescent. Leaves opposite, sometimes alternate near the base or whorled below the inflorescence, broadly elliptic, ovate or obovate-oblong, up to 5 mm long, fleshy when fresh, more or less pubescent on both surfaces; margin entire but ciliate; petiole 5-15 mm long, pubescent. Inflorescence in terminal or lateral 2-5-clustered spikes, greenish, 4-10 cm long. Fruit globose-ovoid, 0.7-0.9 mm long, covered in sticky papillae.

Widespread From DRC and East Africa to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Also in Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, Yemen, Tropical Asia, Taiwan, Micronesia, Polynesia, Australia and from Florida, USA to South America.

Peperomia leptostachya Hooker & Arnott

Peperomia leptostachya Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Beechey Voy., 96, 1832 [type from the Sandwich Islands, Lay & Collie, not seen by us.].—Yuncker, Occ. Pap. Bishop Mus., 14:22, 1938; 22:104, 1959.

Erect, fleshy, pubescent herb, leaves opposite or whorled, lower ones tending to be reflexed and caducous in dry seasons and situations, oval, oval-obovate, or rarely broadly ovate, obtuse to acutish at both ends, petioles up to 1 cm long, usually shorter; spikes terminal or in upper axils, pedunculate, slender, elongate, to 6 (or 10) cm or more, peduncles hirtellous, rachis glabrous; fruit globose-subobovoid, 0.9 mm long.

Hawaii and Southeastern Polynesia westward at least to Fiji and the New Hebrides; in Micronesia known only from Palau, where it is uncommon on limestone rocks at low elevations.

CAROLINE ISLANDS.—Palau: Koror: On elevated coral rock, Kanehira & Hatusima 4416 (FU); small unnamed island near Koror, Kanehira 243 (FU, NY).

Peperomia blanda var floribunda is a succulent herb in the family Piperaceae. The typical habitat is damp rock crevices, sometimes terrestrial. Found in Australia, Africa, India, Malesia and Melanesia. Treated by some authorities as Peperomia leptostachya.