Species
+

Peperomia caperata Ruiz & Pav. ex Yunck.

Emerald-Ripple Peperomia, emerald-ripple pepper, green-ripple pepper, little fantasy pepper

Climate known 6 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Peperomia caperata, the emerald ripple peperomia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Piperaceae, native to Brazil. It is a mound-forming evergreen perennial growing to 20 cm (8 in) tall and wide, with corrugated heart-shaped leaves, and narrow spikes of white flowers 5–8 cm (2–3 in) long, in summer.

Text from Wikipedia, “Peperomia caperata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Peperomia

Peperomia is one of the two large genera of the family Piperaceae. It is estimated that there are over 1,000 species, occurring in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They are concentrated in South and Central America, but may also be found in southern North America, the Caribbean islands, Africa, Oceania, and southern and eastern parts of Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Peperomia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
Ruiz & Pav. ex Yunck.
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
11 in range· 11 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1478mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 258 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Peperomia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1478 mm a year, wettest January at 258 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.1 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Peperomia argentea Sallier; Peperomia caperata Ruiz & Pav.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Peperomia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1090 mm of 1478 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1478 mm a year, wettest January at 258 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1478 mm a year at the habitat, 1090 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 258 mm, driest August at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1262 mm to 1599 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.1 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.1 °C, the absolute minimum -0.1 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 11.7 °C to 16.2 °C), warmest day 26.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 7.1 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Peperomia, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jun to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1478 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 11 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 22–36RH 62–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 11 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 26–3127 / 27–3126 / 26–3025 / 24–2823 / 22–2621 / 21–2621 / 21–2523 / 22–2623 / 23–2725 / 24–2826 / 25–2926 / 25–29
Night °C19 / 19–2319 / 19–2319 / 18–2317 / 17–2115 / 14–1913 / 12–1713 / 12–1614 / 13–1715 / 14–1816 / 15–2018 / 17–2119 / 18–22
Rain mm258 / 191–299194 / 115–202170 / 141–18685 / 78–12279 / 56–8654 / 41–6849 / 35–5938 / 33–6083 / 66–95125 / 96–143145 / 136–167198 / 188–239
DLI35 / 35–3836 / 35–4033 / 32–3429 / 28–3023 / 22–2522 / 21–2323 / 22–2528 / 27–3029 / 28–3333 / 32–3736 / 33–3936 / 35–37
RH %66 / 64–6766 / 63–6766 / 63–6865 / 61–6764 / 61–6663 / 60–6662 / 58–6662 / 56–6663 / 57–6664 / 60–6664 / 61–6665 / 63–67

Each figure is the median across the 11 grid cells holding the 11 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2257:2656 (-22.875, -47.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 11 distinct grid cells holding the 11 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2257:2656 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -23.00_-46.875, lapse-corrected -134 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 621 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast· introduced: Marquesas, Society Is., Marianas
Kew's description“perennial” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.526, -47.134 · in the densest population, 8 records (73% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 11 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 11 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Peperomia caperataPeperomia caperataPeperomia caperataPeperomia caperataPeperomia caperata

Photographs: (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); Feitosa Poliana, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; CaracalShan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Wladimir Relvas Wladimir, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Gyslaine Ferreira, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Peperomia caperata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungus Gnat Larval Control in Greenhouse Plant Production12
R. A. Hamlen, Frank W. Mead (1979) · Journal of Economic Entomology
Pythium splendens . [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].
CAB International UK, Grace M. Waterhouse, J. M. Waterston (1966) · Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2021) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Peperomia caperata Ruiz & Pav. ex Yunck.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Peperomia 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.