30 photographs › At a glance
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Cultivation
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the family Piperaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub or tree”, “wet tropical”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,836 mm of 2,479 mm) takes 8 months, March to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
2,479 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,836 mm of it March to June and September to December. Wettest month May at 302 mm, driest month August at 142 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,425 mm to 3,883 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,517 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,479 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: 25 to 35 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.3 °C, the absolute minimum 15.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 12.6 °C to 22.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in February and October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% 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 +61 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 family Piperaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub or tree”, “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
Mean daily high from 27 °C in Jun and Jul to 29 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Sep and Oct; mean nightly low from 20 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug to 22 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and Dec. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 2,479 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 115 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 15.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 25–32 | 29 / 25–32 | 29 / 25–31 | 28 / 24–30 | 28 / 22–29 | 27 / 22–29 | 27 / 22–30 | 28 / 23–31 | 29 / 23–31 | 29 / 23–31 | 28 / 23–30 | 28 / 24–30 |
| Night °C | 22 / 17–23 | 22 / 17–24 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 17–23 | 21 / 15–23 | 20 / 13–23 | 20 / 13–23 | 20 / 14–23 | 21 / 15–23 | 21 / 16–23 | 21 / 17–23 | 22 / 17–23 |
| Rain mm | 169 / 29–369 | 169 / 71–309 | 207 / 119–325 | 282 / 103–441 | 302 / 34–525 | 190 / 15–469 | 163 / 8–425 | 142 / 18–387 | 206 / 51–377 | 231 / 79–407 | 221 / 123–358 | 197 / 79–333 |
| DLI | 35 / 27–37 | 35 / 28–38 | 33 / 28–36 | 29 / 25–34 | 26 / 22–33 | 25 / 20–34 | 26 / 21–36 | 31 / 25–37 | 32 / 25–39 | 32 / 27–39 | 30 / 25–36 | 32 / 27–36 |
| RH % | 63 / 56–70 | 63 / 56–70 | 65 / 59–70 | 67 / 60–72 | 68 / 57–72 | 67 / 54–72 | 66 / 51–72 | 64 / 49–71 | 65 / 53–71 | 66 / 58–72 | 67 / 61–72 | 65 / 61–71 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 10 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 115 cells that remain: the 36 at least 10° south and the 79 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) LPB, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Eugenia stipitata Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos Ferreira
Philodendron barrosoanum Araceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Maxillaria equitans Luiz’s Tiger Orchid Photo: CC BY, Josh Noseworthy
Inga edulis Ice cream bean Photo: CC BY, Patrícia Mees
Fittonia albivenis Mosaic-plant Photo: CC BY, Christoph Moning Psychotria alba Rubiaceae Other Piper 44 in the reference
Piper aduncum Spiked pepper Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Piper amalago Wall Purslane Photo: CC BY, avocat
Piper artanthe Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch Uribe
Piper auritum Vera Cruz pepper Photo: CC BY, T R Shankar Raman
Piper barbatum Piperaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Piper betle Betel pepper Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)
Piper borbonense Madagascan Wild Pepper Photo: CC BY, yellowplant
Piper bredemeyeri Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez
Piper capense African long pepper Photo: CC BY, Shaun Swanepoel
Piper cernuum Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella
Piper consanguineum Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre
Piper crassinervium Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella all 45 ›Names & registers
Also known as Artanthe dimidiata; Artanthe geniculata; Artanthe jamaicensis; Artanthe lessertiana; Artanthe macrophylla and 57 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Kew accepts as species of their own Piper geniculatum; Piper pullispicum: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected +61 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 195 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.