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Peperomia tetraphylla; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-12

Peperomia tetraphylla (G.Forst.) Hook. & Arn.

Acorn peperomia; Four-leafed Pepper Plant; Fourleaf Peperomia

Piperaceae · Guinea, Liberia +80 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.5°C
Record low 1.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,392mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to November (November to May at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Peperomia tetraphylla, known as the acorn peperomia or four-leaved peperomia, is a small plant in the Piperaceae family that grows natively in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. It has been introduced to Easter Island.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Peperomia tetraphylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Peperomia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Peperomia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial, lithophyte or epiphyte”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (936 mm of 1,304 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.5 °C against a yearly mean of 16.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

1,304 mm in the median year at the habitat, 936 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 159 mm, driest months (3 at 61 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 902 mm to 2,637 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,392 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,304 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.5 °C, the absolute minimum 1.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.4 °C to 13.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.0 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -90 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Peperomia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial, lithophyte or epiphyte”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Peperomia tetraphylla through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.8 °C; 1,304 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°36.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 20–40RH 58–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 313 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 20–2824 / 20–2723 / 20–2621 / 19–2419 / 16–2217 / 14–2116 / 13–2118 / 15–2220 / 17–2322 / 18–2523 / 19–2624 / 20–27
Night °C17 / 11–2016 / 12–2015 / 11–1913 / 10–1711 / 7–159 / 5–148 / 3–139 / 4–1310 / 7–1412 / 9–1514 / 11–1715 / 11–19
Rain mm142 / 72–323159 / 81–313141 / 82–282123 / 63–268101 / 35–28686 / 25–20261 / 21–19361 / 28–18161 / 33–22099 / 64–289126 / 89–267144 / 83–259
DLI39 / 32–4335 / 33–3932 / 29–3626 / 23–3321 / 18–3020 / 15–2921 / 17–3027 / 23–3333 / 27–3837 / 30–4039 / 29–4340 / 30–45
RH %64 / 60–6965 / 61–7065 / 61–7063 / 60–7063 / 58–6961 / 56–6759 / 55–6658 / 55–6558 / 55–6860 / 56–7062 / 59–7063 / 59–69

Records on both sides of the equator: the 144 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 313 cells that remain: the 254 at least 10° south and the 59 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 313 grid cells holding the 418 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2370:6659 (-28.525, 152.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 313 distinct grid cells holding 418 of the 611 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (144 cells poleward of 10° north, 254 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2370:6659 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.50_153.125, lapse-corrected -90 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 132 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGuinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Socotra, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Réunion, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, New Zealand North, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Easter Is., Hawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-26.732, -50.132 · in the densest population, 226 records (15% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial, lithophyte or epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1464 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 418 of them in the land cells it reads, of 611 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1112 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 144 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 853 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1464 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Peperomia tetraphylla, photograph 1did not loadPeperomia tetraphylla, photograph 2did not loadPeperomia tetraphylla, photograph 3did not loadPeperomia tetraphylla, photograph 4did not loadPeperomia tetraphylla, photograph 5did not loadPeperomia tetraphylla, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Equisetum giganteum Equisetum giganteum Southern Giant Horsetail Photo: CC BY, Nahuel Di MarcoPolyscias murrayi Polyscias murrayi Pencil Cedar Photo: CC BY, Max CampbellSchizomeria ovata Schizomeria ovata Australian Crabapple Photo: CC BY, Samuel FrankelColeus argentatus Coleus argentatus Silver spurflower Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioRubus moluccanus Rubus moluccanus Wild blackberry Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyArthropteris tenella Arthropteris tenella Climbing Fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney

Other Peperomia 83 in the reference

Peperomia albovittata Peperomia albovittata Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanPeperomia angustata Peperomia angustata Piperaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Jalil R. Peperomia argyraea Watermelon Peperomia Peperomia arifolia Peperomia arifolia Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Jhonatan MatheusPeperomia asperula Peperomia asperula Piperaceae Photo: CC0, Principe Mendoza BabilonPeperomia berlandieri Peperomia berlandieri Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffPeperomia bicolor Peperomia bicolor Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Tournasol7Peperomia blanda Peperomia blanda Arid-land peperomia Photo: CC BY, Joachim BlatchlyPeperomia boivinii Peperomia boivinii Piperaceae Photo: CC0, GemenaPeperomia bracteata Peperomia bracteata Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialPeperomia camptotricha Peperomia camptotricha Piperaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, James SteakleyPeperomia caperata Peperomia caperata Emerald-ripple pepper Photo: CC BY, CaracalShan all 84 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Micropiper pusillum; Peperomia aemula; Peperomia affinis; Peperomia americana; Peperomia baturiteana and 70 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
(G.Forst.) Hook. & Arn.
Native to
Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone +79
Wild records
1464 in range · 1112 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.50_153.125, lapse-corrected -90 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 181 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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